Obsidian - A HarryPotter fanfic
by JeanRoseElliot
Summary: A prophecy is made and Narcissa Malfoy knows she holds the future of the wizarding world in her womb. With Bellatrix Black already been taken by the dark lord, and her daughter -Hermione - deported from the magical world, Lucius and Narcissa employ every ounce of cunning to ensure the safety of their son - Draco. The Potters and Longbottoms pay a heavy price.
1. Chapter 1 - Wedding Preparations

_**A wizarding wedding was about to take place!**_

It was **the** social event of the year. A long-standing agreement between the blue-blooded Blacks and the richer than Midas Malfoys was coming to fruition. The eldest black of the age, Andromeda Black, was to marry Accursius Malfoy, the famous playboy and the heir to the Malfoy millions. The Malfoy matriarch Azalea Malfoy had her hands full. Azalea had spent the better part of the day negotiating with less honourable ministry officials, which also happened to be her favourite kind of officials. Three of Accurcius's ex-mistresses had filed for child support, two had threatened that they would not let the wedding happen. Those two, however, were mysteriously missing. Azalea Malfoy had bought out so many, that the ministry was not even bothering to look.

The Malfoys had deep pockets.

The press was having a field day. The wedding was all that the papers had been talking about for a month now. Sleazy reporters had taken to following both families around, so much so that twelve restraining orders had been issued. The elves of Malfoy Manor strengthened the wards protecting the ancestral home three times a day. The media, however, was not relenting. Since no one would talk to them, they camped outside the both Malfoy and Black Manors. This was the first Malfoy wedding in decades, and no reporter wanted to ruin his or her career by failing to cover it.

The wedding had been planned by both the matriarchs for the last sixteen years, and the preparations had been underway from the last two. Azalea Malfoy was sparing no expense for the wedding of her eldest son. She had ploughed through the wedding discussions overruling Vaiola Blacks 'suggestions' with barely suppressed hints that Malfoy galleons were funding the wedding (along with saving the Black's skins from the dry-cleaners). While Vaiola thought it was typical of Azalea to be so crude, she had no choice but to bow down to Azalea's suggestions.

Azalea had been ruling with an iron hand, and her high headedness was driving Vaiola up the wall. If it weren't for the fact that Azalea had basically donated a small fortune that was keeping the Blacks afloat, Vaiola had decided to keep her mouth shut about it. For even though Vaiola disliked being bullied and told off every now and then, she hated the thought of being poor infinitely more than that.

The Blacks, though holding what would be called _old pureblood money_ , and therefore filthy rich by any reckoning, had been leaking galleons by buckets due to producing heirs with lack of business acumen two generations in a row. Such profound losses were incurred that they now needed a huge influx of hard cash to get their tottering empire back up. Blacks in the current day, were like a sitting duck- unruffled on the surface, but paddling furiously underneath. For paddle they had to, the Blacks were going down until Midas dined with them very soon.

And miraculously - _in came the Malfoys_.

Originally from France, Malfoys were not welcomed with open arms in England. Coupled with their reputation to trick, bribe, cheat and take part in various underhand dealings, they were not the most respectable pureblood family around. However two generations earlier, a certain Abraxas Malfoy had turned the family's fortunes over and invented a cure for dragon pox. He then went ahead to publish it in all the notable wizarding journals of the time, leading to huge advancements in the treatment of the disease and subsequent non-tarnishing of the Malfoy name. He also married a Veela and from then onwards all Malfoys were born with platinum blond hair and grey eyes. This outer worldly beauty and glow from the Malfoy galleons generally made people forget the source of the fortune.

The Malfoys had approached the Blacks sixteen years back on Andromeda's first birthday gala. The two families stood much to gain from this amalgamation. Blacks - their much-needed galleons and Malfoys - the respect and social standing in wizarding society that their galleons had not _quite_ been able to buy. Too young to agree or disagree, the opinion of the children was not considered.

As had been done for hundreds of years, the children had been betrothed and the betrothal contracts signed by both families in presence of witnesses. Thus Andromeda's and Accurcius's fate, like so many before them, was sealed before they could even say Quidditch.

-X-

One would think that the wedding being held the Malfoy manor would reduce the cost of the wedding considering you got such a beautiful venue for free. With Georgian windows, sprawling lawns, towering turrets and sweeping arches, the manor was truly a sight to behold. Only slightly smaller than Hogwarts (the Malfoys had it measured) it was the grandest privately owned wizarding building in England. Consequently, every detail of the manors refurbishment was gold to the press. The Persian rug that adorned the Malfoy receiving room was in itself worth the average Weasley family's twenty-five-year household income (the Malfoys had that calculated and published)

If the manor was usually spectacular, today it was the stuff dreams were made of.

Seven wizards were busy putting final touches on the floating seven-foot high wedding cake (Pureblood wizarding families and their obsession with the number 7 I tell you). The aisle was decorated with thousands of glittering butterflies charmed to flutter about. Streamers glistening in the morning sun (made by Twilfit and Tattings Drapery Services) were draped to form a conical tent-like structure that framed the stage. They seemed to be so light that they appeared to be either water turned into gas, or air made solid. Huge crystal chandeliers were hung at the centre that looked like actual diamonds (Knowing the Malfoys they probably were). Vines of freesia started at the chandeliers and climbed down to the end of the tent's canopy.

It was a white and blush themed wedding, therefore the tables were all adorned with white freesia centrepieces and covered with pristine white covers with gold ribbons tied on the edge. The chairs, on the other hand, were solid gold and had a white ribbon tied on each.

The wedding venue was done in a style that left the eyes confounded and heartstrings ringing. It was nothing short of spectacular. Azalea Malfoy and Vaiola Black might not personally get on, but Azalea's flamboyance and Vaiola's elegance had fused in such harmony, that the results were outstanding. This wedding would be the talk of the town for at least a couple of decades if not a century.

The food was just as spectacular. The menu was a designed by the noted wizarding celebrity chef Hugo Longbottom and boasted of delicacies from both France and England in honour of the Black and the Malfoys. There were 12 exquisite courses planned. Cheeses had been flooed in from all over the world. The vine was mainly French. The dessert section by itself was the size of the Hogwarts great hall. A thousand pigs, chicken, deer, quails, and salmon had been specially reared for this day on the Malfoy farm. The quality of produce was unmatchable. Downstairs twenty wizarding chefs handpicked by Hugo were busy preparing the feast. Hugo Longbottom was taking no chances of stupid elves screwing up his feast. This was the pinnacle of Hugo's career, after today he would be known as the chef behind the Malfoy wedding, and he was seeing to it that everything went according to plan. Besides, Azalea had already threatened to put him in the widely feared Malfoy dungeons if anything went wrong and Hugo was not entirely sure that Azalea was joking.

Out on the aisle, the flowers had just been put up. Ten thousand bewitching white fritillaries surrounded what was a raised stage on which the bonding ceremony was to take place later in the day. These flowers bloomed only once in twelve years. A fritillary had a strong magical field surrounding it that discouraged the growth of any other plant around it. Due to the fact that fritillaries grew only in the harshest of conditions and cultivating them was not possible, seeing so many at one place was astounding. It was a wizarding custom to have these flowers at weddings. They were considered to bring extreme good luck to the new couple. The scent wafting out of these flowers was nothing short of heavenly.  
Fritillaries were aphrodisiacs and these ones were particularly potent. Fritillary extract was one of the key ingredients in the _amortenia portion_.

Neither family wanted their children to start hating each other before they got to procreate, and they were taking no chances. This was rather barbaric, but guaranteed results. That this encroached even more on the lives of their two children was something that didn't even occur to any of the families...


	2. Chapter 2 -Memories

_Andromeda Black was studying her reflection in the huge gilded mirror._

At five foot eight with a slim figure Andromeda looked elegant in her beautiful light ivory macrame lace ballgown style wedding dress. The fact that Azalea Malfoy had objections to this particular dress, mainly because it was, in her opinion, not _grand_ enough for a Malfoy bride, made the dress perfect. Andromeda gave a very unladylike snort - even if she went decked in diamonds, it would not have been grand enough for the Malfoy's. As her mother repeatedly reminded her, Malfoys were 'new money' thus tended to be far too ostentatious. Looking at her soon to be mother-in-law Azalea Malfoy, and the garish way _she_ dressed, Andromeda thought her mother had a point there, although she would never admit this to her face.

If it hadn't been for the fact that the Black fortune had disappeared, Andromeda Black would never have had to marry beneath herself.

Andromeda was the oldest of the Black brood. She had two younger sisters Bellatrix and Narcissa. That they didn't have any brothers was a source of deep anguish to their father Orion Black. Andromeda thought it was ironic that they were relying on her marriage to the Malfoy's to save their empire even though she and her sisters had always been reminded that they were 'just' daughters. Her younger sister Bella had never stood for this nonsense and outrightly called out her parents in public gatherings. Narcissa though was her exact opposite - calm, quiet - to point of being secretive, she was someone who made best of what the fates gave her. Andromeda and Narcissa had learned long back that they would be holding Bella back from the backlash of her temper for the rest of their lives; for Bella was one who timed her revenge and never let go of an insult, whether real or imagined. The other side of her personality was that she was also fiercely loyal and protective of those she thought were hers. Andromeda and Narcissa were one of the few people in this club and were also one of the few who had seen the caring side of Bellatrix Black. The fact that they were sisters but still so different in their personalities made Andromeda marvel at genetics. Her sisters had once caught her marveling aloud and had forced her to explain to what 'Genetics' was. Unfortunately for them, their father had decided to make a rare appearance in the nursery and had caught his daughters learning 'muggle hocus pocus '. Orion Black had been so enraged that he had given them the trashing of their lives.

Oh, those were happy days!

An echoing chime sounded through the manor as the clock struck eight and Andromeda was jolted out of her reverie. She caught herself before she started reliving any more of her (albeit disturbed) childhood on her wedding. The analytical side attributed her trip down memory lane to being brought about because she was leaving home behind and moving on to something largely unknown. After all said and done, however restrictive her childhood home was, Andromeda was sure to miss it. To be fair, her parents were not abusive, and the time spent with her sisters was something she was grateful for every day. Andy's relationship with her parents may or may not be salvageable, but the three sisters were very close, having formed unbreakable bonds of love, probably due to the fact that their parents had been cold and remote and the sisters had banded together to draw comfort from each other. She knew that whatever those brazen Malfoy's did to her in future, and Andy felt sure that they would, her sisters would always be there to see her through it. They would carry her burdens for her if they had to and the three of them would probably laugh about them all together. Andromeda started smiling thinking about it, it wouldn't be too bad she thought!

A sudden commotion downstairs caught Andromeda's attention - It seemed Orion Black had finally caved under pressure. Andy assumed that her father was putting some poor footman through the cruciatus to vent out his personal frustrations. Why this did not disturb her anymore was something she did not want to worry about today.

'Just Breathe' she told herself and found herself getting calmer.

The sound vanished as suddenly as it had appeared, Andromeda felt in her gut that something was off, her stomach knotted and the hair on her neck stood up. Orion black never finished his crucios so early.

'Don't be silly' she scolded herself. Servants being crucioed in the Black household happened almost daily - and her father might be in a forgiving mood today. Andromeda got up and resumed her pacing ''Breathe .. Just breathe' she chanted. Andromeda stopped in mid-breath, for a minute it had sounded like someone was screaming in the distance. Andromeda tried listening harder, she could hear the typical bangs and screeching that signaled a wizarding duel. Andromeda got more nervous, she got up, picked her wedding train in one hand and lobbed uncomfortably to the window, she threw it open - and nothing...

Andy let out a long-held breath.

The strange cries had her sweating buckets. At this rate, her gown would definitely be ruined. Andromeda muttered a quick non-verbal scourgify while she scanned the lawn below her window, there was nothing to suggest that any altercation had taken place. 'Oh, I hope it wasn't Hokey who was punished' thought Andy worriedly. Despite what little regard she had for her father, she knew Orion black would never punish Hokey on the day of Andy's wedding as Hokey was part of Andy's dowry and the honor of the Blacks would suffer if an inebriated elf were to be presented to the Andromeda Malfoy.

Andromeda was particularly fond of her elf. The Black sisters each had their personal elf since the day they were born. These elves had done everything for them from changing their diapers when they were mere babes to training them on pureblood etiquette when the girls turned five. These elves of theirs were from the _Servita_ elf clan, which only a handful of pureblooded families could boast of owning. They were bred especially for exclusive wizarding families and were particularly loyal. Most of the original families had now died out and their elven lines had disappeared with them. Since only a handful of pureblood families now survived, the servita elves that they owned were also the last of their kind in England. Andromeda found out much of their history in the Black family library where she had spent most of her holidays. Andromeda thought the library was one place she was going to miss more than the entire Black mansion put together.

While other elves could be freed by the gifting of clothes, _Servita_ elves once bound, could not be freed - alive or dead, they served their masters and protected them if need be. When their servitas had provided an heir to work in their stead, their owners chopped off their heads, because once mounted, these heads served to ward against any unfriendly forces that harmed their masters. The blacks had a tradition of mounting heads of their elves on their threshold just for good luck.

Andromeda remembered once such incident from her childhood clearly. Bella, being the wayward child that she was, had discovered a secret room in the Manor which was kept locked at all times, she in her immense childlike curiosity had commanded the room to open. Because she was of the Black bloodline, the room had opened but the power emanating from that room had knocked Bella unconscious. Andromeda and Narcissa had reached that spot looking for their sister, they couldn't get near Bella to lift her off, forced to see their sister trembling from whatever the room was choosing to torment her with, the sisters started screaming for help. Not wanting to abandon Bella to the room Andromeda asked Narcissa to get help. Cissa disappeared and moments later appeared with their mother in tow. Waiola Black had raised her wand, made some complicated movements and the flow of the power ebbed just enough for her to get Bella out of the reach of the room and back her room safely. Bella was in a magically induced coma for a month. The sisters were reprimanded severely by their parents and didn't even have the courage to ask them what was in that room. There were no explanations given and the sisters were in no position to demand answers from their parents. Andromeda threw herself into researching magical fields and eventually figured out that the black ancestral house had been chopping off heads off their elves and storing it in that room to provide a magical protection core for their manor.

Andromeda thought it was a particularly nasty side of the ancient Black clan she had unearthed that day, only to be disappointed over and over again after learning more of her families atrocities- pureblooded families were just vile. After what happened to her sister Bella, Andromeda was sure she was never going to see eye to eye with her contents of the elf-head room. Frankly, apart from being gross the stuff in that room made it to the class A dangerous materials list issued by the ministry and thus was illegal to have in a home. Besides, it was a very bad way to reward extremely loyal house elves. Andromeda thought her family was sometimes too fanatic about security. This kind of warding was very common in wizarding homes when witches were burned at however in the 21st century - Muggles didn't know about Wizards and Wizards had a ministry. All they had to do was to put up ministry approved wards and that would take care of intruders!

Andromeda sighed at the direction her thoughts had taken. She had always been oddly compassionate for a Black. Her mother's single greatest worry, when Andromeda had turned eleven, was that she wouldn't be sorted into Slytherin. She almost wasn't; the sorting hat was about to put her in Gryffindor when she requested it to put her in Slytherin instead. Andromeda didn't need to hear stories of her father crucioing her mother on suspected adultery for the rest of her life. Blacks went to Slytherin and it was Slytherin Andromeda would go to. The sorting hat seemed to understand all this and with a last " _Well this doesn't happen often_ " sorted her into Slytherin.

Hogwarts was one time she and her sisters truly got to meet other children of her own age, all from different blood statuses, purebloods, half-bloods, blood traitors and the dreaded and distrusted muggle-borns, all of them were in one big castle was bound to kindle many friendships and Andromeda, this further validated her beliefs that they were all essentially human, her sisters though were slightly slower on the uptake. Bella still suffered the consequences of the near-fatal exposure to warding magical waves, and suddenly flew into fits of rage, which Narcissa correctly identified as being directed against all people that the elves would have seen unfit to be near the Black family. The elven magic was too imbued in her blood, and fraternizing with anyone lesser than those whose blood was pure made her half insane. Narcissa was the only one who could get her to calm down when in this state. Needless to say, Bellatrix Black never made any friends at Hogwarts.

Narcissa, her quiet sister, also loved her stay at Hogwarts. She proved herself having a naturally intellectual bend of mind. Narcissa Black was generally thought of as the quiet one and Andromeda as the intelligent and well-read one. What most did not know however was that Narcissa showed a particular mental bend for dark magic. Not that she was in any way swayed by them or practiced them, but her extensive knowledge and a third sense as to what a particular curse would do, made her top in her defense against the dark arts class. Narcissa also could intensify new curses, for example, her crucio was the most painful one ever. She was also an unbreachable occulumens, a master portioner and very very good at charms. This was something no one knew about, and Narcissa Black never thought of enlightening the world of what she could do. Rather she was content to just push the boundaries of magic further, not unlike their cousin Regulus.

All the friendships that she had acquired at Hogwarts had their luster somewhat dampened by her betrothal. Andromeda had always known that Accursius Malfoy was her promised, but had chosen never to tell anyone. The first time Andromeda had met Accurcius on the Hogwarts express, he had raked her up and down and walked away smirking. His younger brother Lucius though had given her a respectful nod and followed after his brother. Accurcius had been in his fifth year and Lucius had been in his third when Andromeda started Hogwarts. Lucius she thought was the more charming of the two. Andromeda thought it was as if the knowledge that he would have to make it on his own as the family fortune would go to his eldest, had humbled him. Even Sirius and Regulus weren't as poles apart as the Malfoy brothers. For while Accurcuis was vile, lazy and insolent, Lucius was respectful, courteous and hardworking.

Lucius had taken Andromeda under his wing and used to help her study. Andromeda and Lucius were seen in the library most often. So much so that people had wondered if there was something going on with Lucius and Andromeda. The day these rumors reached Accurcius, he went to see for himself if there was any truth in it. He found the two of them in the library, got out his wand and crucioed his brother repeatedly. If there was one spell Accurcius could perform it was the _crucio_. Lucius and Accurcius were called to the headmaster's, the Malfoys arrived and whisked their sons off after assuring the headmaster that this would not happen. Angry letters were exchanged between the Blacks and the Malfoys as even a slight blot on Andromeda's reputation was unacceptable. To say that Vaiola Black was angry was an understatement. Azalea Malfoy wrote many an apologetic letter and promised to set things right, Andromeda didn't know what played out between the two families but three days later she was still as betrothed as she was before this incident. A week later the brothers came back, Accurcius with a demure and apologetic demeanor that Andromeda thought even flobber worms would see through. He even gave a funny spasm in her direction that was his attempt to nod at her. Andromeda pursed her lips - Her future Husband had _appalling_ manners. Lucius, on the other hand, returned to Hogwarts unrecognizable. His hair that once fell like a smooth curtain to mid back had been chopped off roughly and was face had three bruises that looked suspiciously like boot heel marks and one of his eyes was swollen shut. The traditional Malfoy grace he used to move with was gone and he looked that every step was agony. Andromeda never talked to him and she carried the guilt that accompanied Lucius beating with her till date. As an aftermath of this fiasco, it spread like wildfire that Andromeda and Accurcius were betrothed. No one bothered to befriend Andromeda after that. Accurcius's aggression was well known.

Andromeda made her own friends years later after Accursius left Hogwarts. As her sisters joined the school, Andromeda finally started fitting in. Lucius in his seventh year, Andromeda a fifth, Bella a fourth and Narcissa a second year were seen in a secluded portion of the castle enjoying some rare family baggage free moments. All three sisters quite liked Lucius, Andromeda used to dream he was the Malfoy she was marrying instead of his brute of a brother. It quite helped that Lucius was the one who had clearly inherited the lion's share of Malfoy trademark looks. He was also single, having turned down witch after witch. Pureblood, Halfblood, Mudblood (and if the rumor mill was correct - Veela ) had all propositioned him, but he never showed any interest in any. Some of those rejected witches had started a nasty rumor that Lucius was gay, but still, there were many witches that wanted to snare the last Malfoy. Andromeda's fantasies though were soon put to rest after Andromeda walked on Lucius in the prefect's bathroom one evening.

Lucius was speaking to someone, and she had never heard such tenderness in his voice before.

"No my darling - It doesn't hurt anymore!"

The girl he was with had her back to Andromeda so she couldn't make out who she was in the dark - she still listened enthralled

"But Lucius you have been walking with a limp ever since you came back from home. If Accursius and you father tortured you again then help me god I will . . . ".

Lucius started chuckling a deep resonant laugh that warmed your heart,because you heard so little of it "Yes I know, you will be my knight in shining armor and protect me for the tyranny of my father and brother", When he glanced at her his eyes were sparkling with amusement "I for one know never to tick you charm you put on your elf ... " Andromeda was just about to turn back when she heard her name being mentioned "That glamour charm you put on Andromeda's elf hokey was brilliant" Lucius drawled "Accurcius still thinks Andromeda visits him every night, although how thick could he be to believe that is a mystery to me"

Andromeda's head was spinning. Why was Lucius talking his way, Andromeda knew very well that Lucius knew that glamour charms couldn't be put on elves, and even if they got around that no one would have been able to charm Hokey - a didn't make any sense until she heard the woman speak

"Oh.. the glamour was easy to pull off, all we needed was a willing servant and a forced enemy in the same field to cancel out elven resistance to glamour, Accurcius's elf Grogg provided the enemy part of the required field. I bound them together and just transfigured them to look like Andromeda. The elves were bound Grogg had to obey Hokey because ordinary house-elves have to obey servitas. Hokey obeyed because it was I who had given that order"

That's when it hit Andromeda - the other girl was Narcissa! "My my, you can be creative," Said Lucius with a hint of pride in his voice. Lucius thought while his stupid brother was entertained by an elf every night - or rather two of them, Andromeda continued to be safe behind sheer kind of simple brilliance of this idea made him fall even more in love with his witch. Lucius had seen enough of Narcissa's schemes to know what a big part Narcissa played in keeping her close ones happy. Even though she never let credit reach back to her.

"I am sure Accursius is really happy with his to-be bride, I ordered Hokey to ensure Accurcius was well satisfied," said Narcissa with barely controlled glee. Lucius and Narcissa sniggered, and when they started kissing Andromeda hastily withdrew smiling.

'Devious' Andromeda thought grinning!

The next two years flew by and Andromeda pretended she knew nothing about Lucius as she graduated Hogwarts her wedding date was fixed.

Narcissa had just confessed two days back regarding Hokey's night time meetings with Accurcius and Andromeda had got a gist of his character by fact that his escapades with various scarlet women of society were front kind of gave Andromeda a very realistic estimate of what her married life was going to be. Andromeda really had no option other than to marry Accurcius, but she was glad that her sister had shielded her till now.

A loud bang jolted her out of her reverie into the present, this time the bangs were coming from the hall.


	3. Chapter 3 - Tragedy at the Black's

_" **How DARE you touch her!" shouted Lucius.**_

Andy picked up her voluminous skirts and rushed to the drawing room. She saw the mayhem there and sucked in her breath. Lucius and Accurcius were locked in a deadly battle!

There was a maniacal glint in Lucius's eyes. Magic was crackling like electricity around him, his platinum blonde hair flying in all directions due to static. What Andy could make out of the snatches of conversation being exchanged was that Lucius had caught Accurcius trifling with some lady in the groom's chamber. At that moment, Andy was grateful to Lucius, he was probably the only Malfoy, who was willing to defend her honour. However, her to-be husband hitting on some random girl on the day of his wedding didn't seem to bother Andy as much as it did Lucius. Andy had since long resigned herself that her husband was a playboy and would continue to be one even after they got married. Whatever Andy's expectations of marriage were, fidelity sure wasn't one of them.

"whamunmbe" replied Accurcius. It sounded like he was incoherent with panic. Lucius was angry and everyone here knew Lucius had a lot to avenge. Andy smirked to herself; apparently, it took very little to reduce her to be husband to squealing like a little girl. Her marriage had just got infinitely more interesting. A thousand new ways of torturing Accurcius after they were married sprung up in Andy's mind. And now that she knew Lucius would help her if she asked him, Andy knew she would probably succeed. Andy thought her mother would truly be appalled if she found out what was going on in Andy's head at that time. It was not lady-like, and it was certainly not nice - Andy would have her revenge! Outwardly, she was as calm as before, as she looked on the brothers battling in her parents drawing room with much more interest than before.

Calling it a battle would have been wrong as Lucius was doing all the spell casting and Accurcius was ducking and displaying each and every dastardly quality Andy had suspected him of having. Andy had never seen Lucius lose his calm like this. In wizarding society, it was considered very disgraceful to duck and show your back to your opponent. Accurcius was doing both trying to get away for his brother's ferocious assault. Looking past the scene of action Andy spotted her parents watching worriedly. After all not every day you saw a Malfoy heir running around with jelly legs on his wedding day.

Suddenly there was a loud crack and two people apparated into the Azalea Malfoy apparated dragging Cissa with her. A very dishevelled and bloodied Narcissa Black.

Andy gaped at Cissa. Cissa's eyes were red, and it looked like she had been crying. Her beautiful green ball gown was hanging in tatters around her shoulders. Andy pieced two and two together- Cissa was the 'Lady' that had been the unfortunate centre of Accurcius's affections in the morning. Judging by the state Cissa was in - it was not consensual.

Andy's stomach dropped.

Accurcius had hit rock bottom. Now she understood why Lucius was so enraged. A small part of her felt sad that it wasn't on her behalf that Lucius stood up to his brother, but she quickly stamped down that thought as soon as it had reared - Lucius and Cissa had already done a lot for her - no one could expect more. Andy didn't even realise until she realised she was standing with her wand pointed at Accurcius.

It all happened in one moment. Lucius turned to look at Cissa - as only Andy knew he would because she was the only one who knew about them - Accurcius Malfoy saw his chance and cast the killing curse. Being the only one with her wand at the ready, Andy quickly cast a spell to protect Lucius. All eyes followed the path of the green light that would surely be Lucius's end. At the last moment the vase Andy was levitating finally reached Lucius and broke into a million pieces due to the effect of the killing curse. She suddenly felt six pairs of eyes on her. Two were grateful and the rest were baffled. There was a sudden yell "EXPELLIARMUS", and Andy felt her wand flying away from her. Shocked for a moment that a sub-par wizard like Accurcius had managed to disarm her.

She saw her wand flying away, and she felt a thrill of fear when she saw whose hand it landed into - Azalea Malfoy.

-x-

Azalea Malfoy was truly furious!

This daughter in law of hers had locked horns with her enough number of times. As if parading in front of wizarding society's upper-class gentry in that atrocious gown wasn't enough, she had dared to block her Accurcius's curse. Now that Azalea had disarmed the wench, and she was never getting her wand bank. Let the chit remain without her magic for a couple of months, that would teach her a lesson. These atrocious Blacks had cost her a lot. One of their daughters had accused her son of improper advances and the other had drawn a wand at him. They had even turned her sons against one another. It was her galleons that were funding their business for god's sake! Their livelihood depended on her. And If there was anything that could hurt Azalea, it was a business deal that did not favour her.

A disarmed Andy and a sneering Accurcius locked eyes with each other and in that moment and it hit her with full force how much they hated each other. Andy thought she always knew deep down anyone her family had chosen for her would be as rotten as they were.

Acurcius blew his shot at getting married by aiming the next curse at Andromeda Black.

He had, of course, thought her to be wandless and hence defenceless.

There was a colossal explosion. Before the curse could hit her the drawing room floor caved in and Andy fell into the dungeons. The pain she had expected on hitting the cold hard floor never came. It felt that she was wrapped in a cocoon of energy gently set down on the floor. Andy hastily got up on her feet, wand at the ready to fight against any more curses thrown by her crazy fiancee. Her eyes automatically scanning for any unfriendly curses she registered that all the Blacks were already here, probably brought here the same way as she was. Looking around she saw her parents hastily getting to their feet and Narcissa helping Azalea and Lucius Malfoy. She looked around and there was no sign of Accurcius.

-x-

Azalea Malfoy was scared. She had felt something was off the moment Accurcius turned his wand on the damned wench. A huge explosion happened and a blinding flash of white light erupted from the very walls of the manor hurting her eyes and almost burning her sight. This was followed by a tidal wave of energy that started compressing her. In that split second, she saw both her sons fall. When Azalea was a child she had once fallen down in a river and had been dragged right to the bed, her father had instantly accioed her out but in those few moments, she had felt intense pressure from all the weight of the water above her. What she was feeling now was a thousand times worse. She felt the very air of her lungs squeezed out of her. This was the end of the Malfoy line. The screams she heard from the other side must surely be from hell.

Suddenly a hand caught hers in a vice-like grip and the intense pressure went away. She turned and saw her saviour - the youngest of the Black brood. With her hair billowing around her she thought she saw why Accurcius had tried to grope this one. She was a damn sight better looking than her frigid sister. Azalea looked around, this Black girl was clinging to Lucius with her other hand. Azalea felt a trickle of annoyance. What was it with Lucius and these Black girls. First, the elder one had made googly eyes at Lucius and now the youngest. She still remembered clearly when they had to discipline Lucius over his inappropriate interest in the eldest Black girl. The special torture chamber in the Malfoy mansion was drenched in Malfoy blood for the first time.

Maybe Accurcius would be distracted enough this time and would not notice, Azalea quickly consoled herself.

She looked around, they were in the Black dungeon. All the irksome Blacks were already on their feet. Damn these Blacks they were always elegant and they always made Azalea feel gauche. One good thing that would happen with this marriage was that her grandchildren at least would have this grace that was so clearly lacking in her family.

Speaking of grandchildren where was the groom? Where was Accurcius? Azalea felt a trickle of unease and looked around. Her son was definitely not here. Azalea realised with great indignation, that she was the only one looking around. She locked eyes with her younger son. And in that moment it hit her, he was the only one in this dratted room who understood and mirrored her concern. He was a Malfoy too and in that moment he was just her son who was equally concerned for his brother.

Lucius levitated himself upwards towards the hole in the ceiling or rather floor of the drawing room. Seconds turned to minutes, the youngest chit mirrored Lucius's actions and levitated herself out of the hole. Seconds later there was a huge crack and Lucius and Narcissa were back with Accurcius. Azalea knew something was off from the moment they returned. The remaining three Blacks had rushed to where Lucius had apparated. Azalea could still not see her son, but the moment she locked eyes with Lucius her worst fears were confirmed. With a disgraceful sob, she lurched forward to where her son lay. She pushed aside the gaggle of Blacks and laid eyes on the figure on the floor.

The floor of her stomach fell off, just like the floor of the infernal Black mansion had fallen first born son lay there peacefully, Only trickles of blood coming out of his eyes nose and eyes gave away the fact that he had been crushed to death.

"That's my son" she bellowed... "That's my boy" "Wake up curi" Azalea called Accurcius by his childhood name.

"Curi.."

And she started sobbing. If one could not see Azalea Malfoy crying, it would appear an animal was making these sounds. This couldn't happen, this couldn't be. Her sweet was a Malfoy for god's couldn't be happening. Wait a minute this really could not be she wasn't here at this infernal mansion. Maybe she still was at Malfoy Manor and Grogg had given her the **_somnnum extri_** potion by mistake, that would be it, that damned elf had become very strange these past days. Yes, it must be the **_somnnum extri_** . It made the victim relive his worst nightmares, and this was certainly Azalea's worst.

Azalea thought this was definitely a dream. She started laughing hysterically, the relief was so intense. Why were these Blacks looking at her like this? This image of the Blacks her subconscious had conjured was so close to the real one that it got her chuckling again. And Waiola Black's delicate shudder was so spot on that Azalea Malfoy started laughing again. Lucius strode into her view and she heard a huge smack and felt a sharp burning on her left cheek. It seemed her dream son had slapped her. As her head rolled to a side she saw the Blacks flinch. The way the Blacks flinched sent her into hysterics. He mind was really on a roll tonight! These Blacks really had sticks up their arses.

 _ **"Mother"**_

Lucius's plea jolted her into the present and reality, partly because she couldn't remember the last time he had addressed her like this. The bubble of euphoria Azalea's mind had temporarily drowned itself in had burst, and reality started trickling in. The tragedy of just losing her eldest son came rushing back to her. She saw her son's body and instead of breaking down into a thousand pieces just as her heart was currently doing; she stood up and pointed her wand at the poisonous woman who was going to be her daughter in law.


	4. Chapter 4 - The truth comes out

Azalea felt the blood pounding in her head. She kept seeing flashes of red. Having cast it so many times, Azalea could feel the **_Avada Kedavara_** building up. She was about to cast the killing curse and obliterate the bint who had killed her son. Azalea had her wand trained, and she could sense it vibrating in her hand due to the strength of her hatred.

Gradually good sense began to return, she needed to calm down, if she wanted to kill the chit. She steadied her hand, took a deep breath, and looked that the girl. Aaah ! That was a mistake!

Azalea was furious again! Death was a luxury she was not going to spare this wench! Azalea wanted to hang her from the gallows and whip her. She wanted to peel the bint's skin back little by little and feed it to her. Azalea felt herself shaking. Her wand was vibrating again as though it too shared her pain.

She tried to calm down but her wand was not having it. Azalea could feel the heat coming from her wand.

Wait ... ** _what_**?

Warm was slowly turning to hot.

Too hot.

Unbearable.

She could feel every eye in the dungeon trained on her. Azalea dropped her wand, and as the wand fell, she could hear a thin piteous cry echoing from it.

Azalea's wand landed with a clank on the floor and bounced twice. The tension in the room was palpable. No one had ever heard of wands behaving like this before. The masterless wand started vibrating so hard that it was almost a blur.

Narcissa knew what was going to happen and she also knew the only person that could help them now was Albus Dumbledore -the headmaster of Hogwarts. Cissa would have to cast a Patronus to call the headmaster to their aid or everyone standing here was doomed.

Andy and Cissa looked at each other. The consequences of a wand exploding were tremendous, and nothing could stop them from getting fried to death. The elven power in the locked room was slowly overpowering Azalea's wand. If the wand were to disintegrate, it would cause a massive release of magical energy that would fry up everyone in a five-mile radius to crisp. The power of the elf heads might keep the black family safe, but everyone else would surely meet their maker.

Andy did a quick math, there were at least a thousand wizards and five thousand muggles in Little Hangleton. If you counted magical creatures both on the land as well as those inhabited the Eccup lake, the count rose to ten thousand. A tragedy of such epic proportions had never occurred in magical history. They were, as crude muggle borns said it, royally fucked!

Narcissa Black left her grip on Azalea's arm to cast a Patronus. All the Blacks stared on in wonder. Most purebloods were not able to cast a corporeal Patronus. All Waiola was able to do was to produce a thin wispy silvery smoke from her purebloods thus always shunned the spell, as it was something primarily the lower class could do well. She was about to reprimand her daughter for using such a crass spell when a sudden choking sound came from her right.

The sound coming out of her mouth made everyone look at Azalea Malfoy. Azalea was turning the exact colour of the streamers the had fought with Waiola over - purple. Waiola thought contemptuously that the colour indeed looked really good. She was jolted out of her reverie when the choking sound got louder. "Oh Bugger!" thought Waiola - blood was oozing out of Azalea's ears and eyes.

-X-

Hugo Longbottom was in trouble. Azalea Malloy had given a deadline of 8 o'clock before the first guests started to arrive. It was fifteen past eight, the guests were all waiting outside the Manor and more kept arriving. Azalea was yet to open the gates.

There were twenty _hors d'oeuvre_ that Hugo Longbottom had put on today's menu. The first five were already out in the service window. A hundred portions of cauliflower cheese mousse, scallops, foie gras with figs and apricot, crabs with avocado, and smoked salmon finger sandwiches, were at the ready, waiting to be served to the first guests. The problem with these dishes was that they had to be timed perfectly. A waiting time of half an hour would not do.

Hugo Longbottom took out a vial from the interiors of this robes. Medi Witches at St Mungo - the wizarding hospital had prescribed him an anti-stress potion with a warning to use it sparingly and only in extreme this didn't qualify as an extreme case, Hugo didn't know what gulped down the potion and felt a sense of immediate relief.

Frank Longbottom was watching his father get more stressed by the had never really understood the fascination of being a chef, even a world-renowned one like his father. Frank had found his calling in being an Auror. Toiling away for months and catching dark wizards was his forte. He had an impeccable record and was acclaimed as one of the best Aurors of the department. His father had never understood why Frank liked to do what he did. To each his own was something Frank had long since resigned himself to.

Today, however, Frank was here to help his was also here as an undercover Auror. He and his team had long since suspected the Malfoys of having connections to the young upstart who called himself Lord Voldemort, who was giving the Auror department a migraine by proving very difficult to was Frank's job to snoop around Malfoy manor and look for any clues that could help his team to track down _Voldemort_.

Frank excused himself and wandered up the winding staircase that connected the kitchens to the rest of the Manor.

-x-

The gates were opened and guests started streaming in. A small army of servita elves, gifts from the bride's side, were there to take the guests coats and lead them to the aisle where the ceremony was to take place. Albus Dumbledore, the Potters, the Notts, the Parkinsons, the Carrows, the Bones, the Zabinis, the Delacours, all had come to the wedding.

The food came in. All of the twenty _hors d'oeuvre_ and goblets of fire-whiskey started doing the rounds. The legendary Malfoy wine cellar was thrown open to guests and it was magnificent. Strange lilting music was playing in the background. Haunting and Potter felt the first stirrings of unease, this was a composition she knew. It was, if she remembered correctly, Beethoven-Bagatelle no. 25 in A minor, commonly known as 'Fuer Elise'. Muggle music at a Malfoy wedding? The Malfoys were notorious propagators of pureblood beliefs. In fact Lily was sure she was the first muggle-born to set foot inside Malfoy Manor. She knew very well it was only because she was now Lady Potter, and it was well known that the current Lord Potter refused invitations point blank unless they included his muggle born lady as well. Not wanting to read too much into what could simply have been an oversight on Azalea Malfoy's part, Lily pretended that she didn't recognise the music and went about sampling the exquisite food. The salmon tartare was excellent!

Azalea Black was conspicuous by her absence. The Malfoy groom stood alone.

As they all neared the altar, Lily Potter there in resplendent black robes was Lucius Malfoy. Accurcius Malfoy was nowhere to be seen.

James and Lily Potter had known Lucius Malfoy from Hogwarts. Though she had never talked to him directly, he was, as she had heard from Severus, the only Slytherin male who hadn't joined the "Death Eaters". It was with a heavy heart that Lily remembered Severus Snape. Sev had been her friend and Lily didn't have one childhood memory that didn't include him. Severus had a troubled childhood and because of his abusive father, Severus always thought that the strong dominated the weak. Joining Voldemort had been Severus's way of gaining more power. Lily held herself responsible for Severus's becoming a dark wizard. She was his friend, she should have seen it coming and stopped it. Every day when she got a new death eater's file to track on her desk, she prayed before opening it that it wasn't Severus's. She knew that Severus did unspeakable horrors these days and that she had probably lost her friend forever, but she didn't think that seeing it all confirmed would be something she would be able to take.

Lucius however, according to Severus was very different from Accurcius. Severus, back when he wasn't enthralled with the dark lord, used to think highly of Lucius. Lily had always liked the way Lucius stood up to his bully of a brother. If he hadn't been a Malfoy, she would say he was a decent fellow. Lily looked at the invitation card again, it read:

" _Lucius Malfoy weds Narcissa Black_ "

Something was very wrong.

Suddenly a commotion behind her made Lily Potter turn in her seat.

The bride was walking down the aisle the music changed to "Carmina Burana: O Fortuna". Another muggle number. Lily had grown up with this music. But hearing it played right now with Malfoy manor in the background, Lily thought the music was mocking everything the Malfoy's stood for. The choice of the composition couldn't have been better muggle music, Lily thought the piece chosen matched the high drama surrounding this wedding.

Narcissa Black looked resplendent walking down the aisle in her black and pink wedding gown. The gown had a seven-foot train and Narcissa was encased in a sheer black veil. The train swept the aisle as Narcissa walked down the aisle. Despite her reservations for the Malfoys and everyone that shared their beliefs, Lily had to admit, it was the most beautiful wedding she had ever seen. The love in Narcissa's eyes was in Lily's opinion brighter than all Malfoy jewels. She joined Lucius Malfoy at the altar. Everyone could see this was the first Malfoy wedding that didn't involve the bride and groom hating each other. Lily Potter thought the bride and groom positively glowed with a soft radiance that only love could bring.

"Lord Malfoy and Lady Narcissa Black .. " the minister began.

The guests gasped Lord Malfoy?

The world came to know Accurcius Malfoy was dead!


	5. Chapter 5 - Secrets of the darkest art

Amidst furious whispers, questioning glances and dubious grimaces, the Minister continued..

"Do you Lord Malfoy take Lady Narcissa Black to be your magically bonded wife?"

"I do" replied Lucius.

The audience broke into an uproar, wizarding bonding ceremonies were unheard of in the elite pureblood class.

"Do you Lady Narcissa Black take Lord Malfoy to be your magically bonded husband?"

"I do" replied Narcissa.

Lightning started crackling overhead and the first drops of rain started falling. The sun still shone brightly and no one paid it any attention.

A wizarding bonding ceremony was the way wizards had married traditionally. Merlin himself had married Morgana through a bonding ceremony. It was common knowledge that Merlin and Morgana's bond was so strong that their powers had merged and flown into each other's veins. Being exceptionally gifted at magic even before they were bonded, there was a huge increase in their magical potential thereafter.

These days, however, old magical families often married for money, and such marriages were usually based on a binding marriage contract between the heads of the two families. Bonding ceremonies were very common in the lower classes or in young lovers who ran away together. It was also the preferred way for men to get out of a troubled marriage because strong bond naturally overruled any magical contract. It was therefore now taboo.

A bonding performed by a pureblood family, in a public ceremony with the amalgamation of two family businesses at stake, was unheard of. No family wanted to risk public humiliation if no natural bond was found between the Man and woman getting married.

Lily Potter was intrigued. James and she had also gotten married by a bonding ceremony. It turned out their bond was as fierce as her love for James. The fact, that their power flowed into each other after the bond, it made them the strongest aurors in a century. Lucius and Narcissa both had great magical potential. Any bonding would make them stronger. If the rumor regarding their involvement with Lord Voldemort was true, the magical community would have two very formidable dark wizards. The mere thought of the Malfoys growing in power made Lily very nervous.

The minister produced a small ornately carved knife. Lily had seen such knives whenever she was investigating crimes related to purebloods. She knew that only a handful of such knives existed and most could be traced to old wizarding families. The Potter family also had one such knife. And the last time they had taken it out of its case had been for their bonding ceremony.

The minister raised his arms and cast some spells. By the sudden gusts of wind howling around them, it appeared he had summoned the air element. The spells he cast were all ancient and hardly anyone should make out what the minister was casting. Sunlight caught the knife and its beauty was for everyone to see. Rubies the size of eggs glistened in its hilt and the blade was goblin-wrought. The minister quickly evoked all the four elements and brought down the knife to place small cuts on both Lucius and Narcissa's palms.

Their blood oozed out.

And combined.

Suddenly a glow started surrounding their hands.

Lily looked on stunned. The bride and the groom were encased in a bright green light and she was hard pressed to just make out their shapes. The bonding ceremony had been completed.

Their bond was spectacular. Equal if not brighter to what James and Lily's had been.

Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy were man and wife.

-X-

Frank Longbottom was lost. The elves of Malfoy Manor were on his tail and he was no closer to discovering any connection to Voldemort.

He cursed himself for not bringing James Potter's invisibility cloak.

Frank quickly removed his wand from his wand holder. This was a special holder that had been designed by his friend and fellow auror - Lily Potter. She was amazing with charms and she loved experimenting. The wand holder was one of her discoveries that the Auror department had bought exclusive access to. Whilst a wizard's wand was in the wand holder, for all intents and purposes the wizard looked and felt magically wandless. While in the holder, a wand could neither be summoned, nor could it be snapped. The owner of the wand was the only one who could retrieve it.

Once Frank got his wand back in his hand, he could feel the waves of an alarm going on throughout the manor. While an unarmed visitor was not much of a threat and registered basically as a muggle, a wizard with a wand, with loyalties that didn't lie with the Malfoy's, triggered all the protective charms that guarded the manor. Waves of magic, as strong as the _imperius_ he had been repeatedly subjected to in training, hit Frank, forcing him to retreat from the lobby. Frank put his _occulumency_ shields up, making a mental note to thank Mad-Eye moody if he ever got out of here alive, he ignored the strong compulsion to back off. Frank knew he had mere moments before the Malfoy's elves trailing him found him.

A door to his right caught his attention. It was brilliantly carved and had the biggest gems studded on it. Where all the doors of the manor were plain polished oak, this was a different kind of wood - Elder.

Frank tried to push his frozen limbs to move. The compulsion coming off the Elder door was weighing him down.

As soon as his hand connected with the door, an army of elves surrounded him. Mad-eye's rigorous training paid off again- before the first elf could even raise its arm, Frank was on the other side of the elder door. As the door swung shut, the last thing Frank saw was the elves of Malfoy Manor looking at him fearfully. An unwelcome visitor had breached the manor, their masters would not be too happy.

Frank looked around, the compulsion that had been preventing him from opening the elder door had vanished. The spell caster had only cast the enchantment at the doorway. A rookie mistake, thought Frank with satisfaction, and one that Frank fully intended to take advantage of.

The room that he was in could only be described as a church. His muggleborn girlfriend - Alice, had taken him once to a muggle prayer hall, and it looked very much like this. There were even benches that all faced in one direction - 'pews' - Frank remembered they were called. Muggles believed in the concept of God; there was no wizarding equivalent of a god. Sure there were very powerful ancient wizards like Merlin and Morgana that were almost worshipped in their own right, but nothing that equalled the all-powerful being that muggles revered. Such a concept was so alien, and the faith muggles associated with it was so profound, that walking into a church ruffled many wizards. Frank strode forward, his wand at the ready. A strange light was coming from the altar, casting gloomy shadows on walls as Frank walked past the pews. A couple of times Frank turned around suddenly, sensing movement from the corner of his eye - there were mirrors reflecting his movement - disorienting him.

By the time Frank reached the end of the room, he was totally spooked. Either it was the creaking floorboards, or the crazy mirrors, or the flickering light, all Frank knew this was no ordinary room, and he probably should have got back up. Frank looked around, at the altar a book was open, Frank was just about to read what was written in it when the book closed with a snap!

'What in the name of Merlin's - ' ! Frank stopped himself from finishing, he was in a church after all; and even though he wasn't a believer, his girlfriend Alice would have his head if she heard that he swore in a place of worship.

Frank slowly crept forward to get a better look. It was a thick book that looked ancient. The binding was in some strange material that looked suspiciously like human leather. Some faded marks at the centre of the cover caught his attention, Frank squinted closely, they looked like faded red runes. Frank tried not to think how much the letters looked like they were carved in blood. He read the title and felt a trickle of unease. It loosely translated to :

 ** _"Secrets of the darkest art"_**


	6. Chapter 6 - A feast

James Potter was enjoying being in the Malfoy Manor, and that was a first. It was probably in part because the old hag - Azalea Malfoy had made herself scarce. Azalea Malfoy had a way of looking at James that bordered on lecherous, it made James feel as if a thousand slimy spiders were crawling all over his skin. Today, however, the sun was at its highest and it was a warm day. There was good music, great food and alcohol flowed freely. The Malfoy's sure knew how to throw a party. James was an Auror by profession and a musician by passion. The music being played today - Mozart, Beethoven, although surprising, considering its muggle origin and Malfoy's prejudiced attitude, was one of the few things that could uplift James's mood anytime.

James looked into the depths of his flute of champagne.

Contemplating.

The Potter's were the oldest wizarding family of wine conglomerates. In fact, fire-whiskey - the wizarding poison, was manufactured by the Potters. They also owned vineyard after vineyard of the _Pinot Noir_ grape. One of the reasons the _Pinot Noir_ wine elicited such devotion from the upper-class wizarding society was because the grape was really hard to grow, which resulted in a great bottle of _Pinot Noir_ being a rare find. The Potters had made their fortune by discovering a way to magically cultivate the grape, such that the wine was always perfect. Having a good head for business, they had kept this knowledge a closely guarded family secret. It had always been rumoured that the Malfoys made exceptionally great wine, but could not mass produce it, so it had never been a viable business for them. Thus, there had been a competitive edge, bordering on a vendetta, between the Potters and the Malfoys, each trying to pry the others secret open. Tasting the Malfoy label today though, with concentrated and strong aromas of morello cherry, almond and cherry stone got a hundred different ideas running in his head. A fruity bouquet - thought James - and amazing.

A pity the Malfoys were firmly set on the pureblood philosophy, something no Potter would ever see eye to eye with. Looked like the wine vendetta would continue, and the world would lose a great wine, thought James sadly. He suddenly realised he was getting all sentimental over a glass of wine - although to be fair, his father would be very proud that James was finally _embracing his heritage_. James chuckled softly, out on his right he could sense Lily shooting daggers at him. He shook his head, the wine was getting to him, and he had promised Lily that he wouldn't drink much today.

The bride and the groom walked hand in hand, and there was a collective sigh from the ladies. James rolled his eyes; If being married for five months had taught him something, it was not to make a snarky comment right about now. He knew if he turned to his right, he would find Lily dabbing her eyes. James never got what the fuss was about weddings anyways. Granted, the flowers were good, the feast was spectacular, but how did all of this put together make one cry? Even so, James knew better not to ask Lily all this, the guest room bed was very uncomfortable, and these were the kind of questions that usually got him banished there. The female mind was always and would continue to be beyond James.  
Mad-eye Moody had sent in four of his best Aurors to the Malfoy Mansion today -rather three - James had always been better behind the scene of action. The department had confirmed intelligence reports that Azalea and Accurcius Malfoy had met with Voldemort last week. What went on in the hour-long meeting was something the department had no clue about, except that Accurcius and Azalea had come out of it with different expressions -Azalea exhilarated and Acurcius distinctly uncomfortable.  
Frank Longbottom was undercover as his father Hugo Longbottom's assistant, and Sirius Black, James best friend was posing as the Potter's family pet - snuffles. Lily and James were here of course as guests. Each of them had an enchanted object that would heat up if anyone was in danger. For example, if James were to get into trouble, and wanted to call for help, all he had to do was to touch his wristwatch and the other three would get alerted. His wife Lily had herself put in the enchantments and James was confident that they would be able to get what they came for.  
Suddenly his watch heated up. James looked at the dial and there in Franks's handwriting were the words. ' _Help ! Room like a church!_ '  
James looked around in alarm, Lily was staring at her locket the pendant of which echoed the same words. Snuffles - he must have felt his collar heat up - bounded towards the castle just as James cried out 'Sirius wait!'...  
James realised his mistake as soon as the words slipped out of his mouth and shut up. James didn't want to be the one who blew their cover, the consequences of that would be disastrous. Especially for him. James thought about Mad Eye's expression if the department's hand in today's mission was exposed, and gulped.

He looked around nervously to check if anyone had heard.

Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy were striding towards them, and neither looked like the happy couple they were a few seconds back. James mentally said goodbye to being an Auror. He would be better off as a wine connoisseur really, that is if Mad-Eye left him alive.

-*-  
Lucius Malfoy had been watching the Potters since they had arrived at the wedding. There was something about those two that didn't feel right to him. That they were Aurors by profession, and the Malfoy's didn't have the most impeccable reputation, didn't bother him as must as the fact that their gazes were more searching rather than admiring. Although, if they were indeed undercover Aurors, then James Potter certainly was acting the part perfectly, guzzling the Malfoy wine like there was no tomorrow, thought Lucius with disdain.  
Lucius had always been burdened with the stigma associated with the Malfoy name since he was a child. Other children were either too base born for him to be allowed to play with or were purebloods with a simpering attitude he hated. Andromeda Black was his only first friend for a long time. Lucius had found love when her sister had joined Hogwarts two years later. Today, however, was a test of his love and friendship, and he didn't want any more on his plate!  
The events of the morning were still fresh in his mind, Lucius's mother and brother were now dead and Narcissa's father, on feeling that the deal with Malfoy's was not going to work, was threatening to get Narcissa Married to the next higher bidder. Lucius had no choice but to marry Narcissa today.

What was to be the happiest day of their lives was marred by the knowledge that his mother and brother were waiting to be buried as soon as the wedding got over.

Lucius looked across the hall at the Potters, Narcissa saw where he was looking.  
"What's a swarm of Aurors doing here on our wedding day?" Narcissa asked with a tiny frown.

"They were invited darling" drawled Lucius in his most carefree voice, he was was not going to worry her on their wedding day "And two Aurors is hardly a swarm"

"Three" breathed Narcissa slowly staring at the dog.

Lucius felt a trickle of unease. He followed his wife's gaze "You mean to say the dog is .."

"My cousin Sirius Black" finished Narcissa.

"Are ... you sure about this Cissa?" asked Lucius with a hard look on his face. Granted his family had done despicable things in the past, but as of now, he was the head of Malfoy's. And these Aurors had no business of being here.

"Positive my love" began Narcissa "I once saw Sirius transform in the attic of Grimmauld Place when he thought no one was looking. Also, he makes for a terrible dog" she finished with a grimace.

Lucius looked at the dog the Potters were calling 'snuffles'. Narcissa had a point there. Now that he thought about it, if this was indeed her cousin, he did make for a terrible dog. The dog kept lowering his head to look under witches robes. Something Lucius remembered the bloke doing at Hogwarts in his human form as well.  
Lucius and Narcissa began to stride towards the Potter's.


	7. Chapter 7 - Dark Magic

**There were two dead bodies in Narcissa Malfoy's home - and they would soon start to stink**. Narcissa didn't have time for these pesky aurors and their bloody snooping antics.

Narcissa Malfoy was fuming, as she strode over to the Potters she couldn't help but overhear Lord Potters startled exclamation 'Sirius!'.

So the great shaggy dog was indeed her cousin - thought Narcissa with grim satisfaction.

And to think, today was her wedding day. A few hours earlier, Narcissa had been getting ready for her sister's marriage, and now she herself was Mrs Malfoy. This day was vying of the spot of the craziest day of Cissa's life -and that was saying something - considering she had dating a Malfoy, that too in secret.

The events of the morning were floating like ghosts in front of her eyes. Her husband's vile brother had made the colossally stupid mistake of threatening a Black in the Black mansion, and the elven powers in the room containing the severed heads had crushed him to death. Her now deceased mother in law, had trained her wand on Andy; they had narrowly averted a large scale catastrophe by summoning the headmaster Albus Dumbledore in the nick of time, who with a flick of his wand had stopped the disintegrating of Azalea's wand. The elven powers, even if they couldn't break Azalea's wand, had still crushed her to death in vengeance on their master's behalf. Narcissa's father, Orion Black seeing his long standing business deal disintegrating before his very eyes had immediately pounced on the fact that Lucius loved Narcissa. Her father had given Lucius an ultimatum - either Lucius would marry Narcissa today, or Narcissa would get engaged today to Vincent Crabbe.

Narcissa shuddered at the thought . Vincent Crabbe had been her classmate at Hogwarts, and he was so dim, that all the professors at Hogwarts had long since given up the hope that he would ever learn anything. His father's deep coffers were what had kept him for seven years at Hogwarts.

Narcissa suspected he didn't even know how to read.

With his eldest daughter bringing in the Malfoy money, Orion Black had been eyeing the Crabbe money to fuel his illegal dark creatures import business. Narcissa had been next in line to be sold as meat to the Crabbe's . As soon as Lucius agreed to marry Narcissa the same day, Andromeda was asked to take Narcissa's intended, and get engaged to the Crabbe heir. Obviously, Orion Black didn't care which of his daughter married whom, as long as he got his galleons, thought Naricissa with a sneer.

Andy had paled and hearing that she was to get engaged to Vincent Crabbe. Throwing her sister one fearful look , which had made Narcissa hate her father even more, Andy disapparated along with her servita - hokey, and no one had seen her since.

Of all the grievances Narcissa had with her parents, this was probably the biggest. Her beloved sister Andy could not attend her wedding. Narcissa would never forgive the Blacks for this.

That Sirius **_Black_** was cavorting around her house, thinking no one would find out, angered her even more. She was about to call out Lord Potter when the Lady Potter let out a grunt of pain. Lord Potter lunged at his lady and tore a chain off her neck. Narcissa could see very well that the chain that had burned Lily potter, and now was scalding James Potter's hand. Despite the fact that James ,Lily , and Sirius were attending their wedding under false pretences, Narcissa felt her respect for James Potter grow. He had reacted instinctively to protect his wife , Narcissa could smell the locket scalding his palm, but he didn't let go. The locket was straining to get back to Lily Potter's neck, but James was not about to let go, and by the fumes coming from his wrist, Narcissa could make out that James's watch was burning him too.  
-x-  
Lily potter was staring horrified at the scene before her. Her linking charm had backfired badly. Something dreadful was happening to Frank, and because his watch glass was linked to all of their life forces, all of them were in mortal peril. Lily was desperately trying to unlink the objects, however the sight of her husbands scalding flesh was very distracting. If she couldn't do this in time, James's sure was going to die.  
Lily was distracted by a warm splash of something, she looked down and saw her husband convulsing on the floor and herself drenched with blood. She gazed transfixed at the red blood pulsating out of the vein on James hand that he wore the wrist watch on. The watch had eaten away flesh and hit a vessel. Lily felt her lunch coming upto her mouth. It wasn't that she hadn't seen blood before, but Lily never thought she would see the day her husband bled to death, as she looked on helplessly.

Somehow, it seemed days later , Lily regained focus. A Malfoy elf was slapping her, repeateadly. As her head cleared she saw the elf look at his master, and Lucius gave him a small nod. The elf dissaparated with a pop. The loud crack of disapparation, made Lily even more alert. She saw Lucius Malfoy bent over James's wrist muttering an incantation that sounded like _vulnera_ _saneatuer._

Lilygother wits together, Lucius Malfoy was healing James's vein just as fast as the linking spell was rupturing it. She didn't have time to undo the linking spell, and Lucius was bound to get tired soon. Lily though about sirius and his collar around his neck, and shuddered. She didn't even want to think about what was happening there. She looked around helplessly and started combing the room in hope of fining anything that would help her. Carpets, chandeliers, portraits, vases flowers, trinkets, swords, shields with coat of arms, candelabras.

Lily's gaze was drawn to the sword, not knowing what was pulling her. She bounded over to the far wall where it was hung , dragged out a chair and got the sword down from its mount. Lily could feel as if some kind of haze surrounded the area around it. This blade looked goblin made. A mad idea, or maybe a stroke of inspiration struck Lily. She picked up the sword, and turned to Lucius. He gave an imperceptible nod. If Lily could do it right, the magical field around the sword, would completely change the draining dynamics of her spell. The sword had much more magical energy flowing through it, if she could somehow link the sword in her spell, instead of draining Sirius and James, the spell would start draining the sword. The sword, being goblin made, was probably infused over the generations - how and when Lily did not know. But if the power she was sensing actually resided in the sword, it would be like a battery to Frank.

And James and Sirius, but Lily tried not to think of that right now.

Lily took out her wand and started performing complicated turns and taps. She took out her secret aurors hand box that moody insisted they carry. It had among other things, four vials of polyjuice potion. Polyjuice potion was the transformation potion. It was very complicated to brew, and disastrous if you got it wrong. Very rare ingredients like boomslang skin, powdered bicorn horn, Lacewing flies were needed to brew it. It also needed a part of the person that you wanted to transform into. Since it captured the essence of a person, it would do very well for adding a fifth element into the linking spell. Each of these polyjuice potions contained hair, from all four of them. Lily drew a square on the ground with her wand, and placed the four poly juice vials around it. She then drew a circle inside the square with the vials and placed the sword in it. Lily, took a deep breath and whispered - 'Vinculus' and moved her wand as if it was tracing the inside of a spring. She felt a rush of blood in her face and hands, it felt very much as if the spell had worked.

Lily was afraid to look up, if the spell did not work, James and Sirius would be dead by now. Lily didn't think she could bear to go on without James.

-x-

Lucius Malfoy was sealing James Potter's vein again and again. And it was very hard work. Not to mention - messy. Lucius had always hated the anatomy class back at Hogwarts. All the dead animals in the practical gave him the Jeepers. Lucius had an aversion to blood, and gore and anything that resembled anything that was supposed to be under any kind of skin. Unfortunately for him, James Potter had collapsed in front of him, and his innate sense of honour had compelled him to jump in to help and his wife had gone to help her cousin. He had just sealed James Potter's vein for the hundredth time today , and still that damn spell was hell bent on killing the bloke. As he was sealing James's wrist Lucius felt James's magic was just evaporating and Lucius could not sense where it was going. Something clicked in the back of his mind - James's and Sirius's life forces were being drained! It dawned on Lucius that there were at least four uninvited guests at Malfoy Manor today, and one of them was in mortal peril draining the other two - and they were barley keeping each other alive.

There was a surge of magical field from his right. James's muggle born wife, was performing a spell, the likes of which he had never read about at Hogwarts. Although, the Malfoy library had books that mentioned a similar spell. Lucius strained his memory, he had read about a class of spells called the ' ** _Vincula_** '. If Lucius remembered right, it was dark magic, requiring blood sacrifice. Lily Potter, the Gryffindor poster girl was dabbling in the dark arts, Lucius thought smirking to himself - Gordic Gryffindor was probably turning in his grave .

The pressure on James's vein suddenly stopped.

Lucius looked down, James's vein was no longer getting torn open. But he still looked on the verge of death. He had lost a lot of blood.

Lucius raised his wand , clearly imagined his room's secret potion store, and whispered ' _Accio sanguinem implerenta_ '.

The blood replenishing potion zoomed out of Narcissa's potion kit into Lucius's hands.

'Drink this' Said Lucius harshly , getting the flask to James's lips.

Despite his inebriated state, James did not trust him - even after Lucius had sealed the bloke's veins a hundred times. Some enmities ran too deep thought Lucius with a sinking heart. This was what the Malfoy name was, no one trusted a Malfoy! Lucius scowled and was about to get up from the floor, when a hand shot out and weakly gripped the flask.

Lucius's heart soared, James Potter had gulped down the potion.

James's Potter opened his eyes instantly alert. After having his lost blood replenished, he looked infinitely better. He looked around, saw his wife standing over Salazar's sword, and whispered.

"Lily..."

Lily potter looked up and stared onto her husband eyes. Even though they did not say anything, it seemed to Lucius, that they were having an entire conversation . Lucius started to feel awkward, as if he was encroaching on a deeply personal moment. He got up and suddenly remembered, Cissa had gone to save her cousin , Sirius.

Before he could turn to go to his wife, an elf apparated at his feet.

"Grogg failed Master!"wailed the elf, beating his head on the floor; punishing himself so badly, that it was impossible to understand what he was saying.

Lucius had never agreed with the pureblood belief of torturing house elves. But his mother had always believed that elves should be punished regularly. Lucius felt James and Lily's reproaching looks burning holes in the back of his head. The Potters probably sung lullabies with their elves regularly, Lucius thought sneering.

Lucius cried "Grogg I forbid you to punish yourself anymore" Grogg immediately stopped moving, he lay limp on the floor panting. Grogg turned around and looked at Lucius straight in the eye-

"The intruder got into the Chapel."

Lucius's heart was not good

"Narcissa?"

"Mistress Cissa be with dog man -Mistress Cissa healed dog man" , Grogg cried - Lucius felt an overwhelming sense of relief - Cissa was safe.

"Dog man" Thought Lucius with the trademark Malfoy smirk. Grogg, might be a lousy watchman, but he sure knew how to invent killer names.

Looking at grogg again made Lucius think about the problem at hand - One of the Aurors had got into the chapel.

"We have a problem" Lucius turned to Lily and James Potter.

-x-

Narcissa Malfoy nee Black was in a sticky mess, while Lucius was taking care of James Potter, she was attending to Sirius Black. He impulsive cousin had really done it this would be dammed if she would let him die on her doorstep on her wedding day.

Sirius's dog collar was red hot, and blood was pouring out of his neck to the collar. It looked like he had minutes left, rather seconds, Narcissa amended, staring at the blood oozing out of her cousin's neck. Narcissa held out her palm, and hovered it over the dog's collar. It was obvious that Sirius's magical essence was leaving him. However it appeared to simply evaporate , which was contradictory to everything Narcissa knew about magic. Narcissa quickly figured out that there was a link that was acting as a drain, of magic - and in Sirius's case - of blood. She raised her hand and made a summoning gesture, using both wand less and non verbal magic, the blood replenishing potion zoomed out of the Malfoy apothecary and Narcissa applied it directly on the collar.

It reached a state of stasis...

The blood replenishing potion was generating blood, almost as fast as the linking spell was draining it.

Narcissa administered more of the potion, and the effect was immediate. Where seconds before lay a dog, now lay her battered cousin, breathing shallowly, as if every breath was a war with death - that both the Blacks were fighting.

Brother and sister looked at each other- black eyes met blue. One worried, and the other defeated; One resigned, and the other praying for a miracle.

Suddenly, the draining stopped. The blood replenishing potion started working in earnest. Narcissa saw colour returning to her cousin's face, and the flush of life coming back. Sirius's cheeks filled out, his eyes got back their twinkle, in fact Narcissa could have sworn, even his hair got shinier.

As if he needed anything to enhance those handsome features of his. Sirius had inherited the Black's trademark aristocratic nose, and full lips, that made girls swoon.

"So dear brother, what a marvellous way to gatecrash your cousin's wedding. Although if I distinctly remember you actually had an invitation" Narcissa looked at her cousin exasperatedly.

Sirius snorted "I don't think you heard Cissy, I was recently blasted off the family tree".

Narcissa gasped "What?..."

"Not that I was doing any good sitting there- Mind you... I was the most non-conforming black in the history of our family. You know the business with Gryffindor and all that.." Sirius replied with a smirk "And _Black_ that name never settled with me..."

Cissa had always prided herself in seeing beyond the front cover people put on, and what she sensed now was that her cousin was more hurt than he let on. Narcissa thought it was best she did not pursue the topic further.

"Anyways Cissa, we had orders to search the Malfoy mansion undercover, now that our cover is truly and spectacularly blown, it doesn't matter if I ask you directly - you wouldn't know anything about the Malfoy Chapel would you?"

"Malfoy Chapel?" Asked Narcissa, the first stirrings of unease starting in the pit of her stomach. "Why?"

"The fourth member of our team is in the Malfoy chapel, and looks like he is in trouble"

"He is in the chapel? How did he get in there? I put up charms to prevent that" Narcissa gripped her brothers arm. "Sirius, if indeed your auror is in there, it's not good!" Narcissa was wringing her hands with worry "Quick! We have to find Lucius".

The urgency in his cousin's tone was enough to jolt Sirius into action.

Before they could take a step, a snake patronous soared to Narcissa and spoke in Lucius's voice.

 ** _"They have risen - a sacrifice has been made"_**


	8. Chapter 8 - Putting the dead down

**_Anything that's dead, should stay dead._**

This was the only rule Sirius went by.

As an auror, Sirius had witnessed more than his share of undead wizards walking around. He had seen the same story played out time and again - A wizard, generally sickly, panicked at the thought of dying, got the crazy idea to live forever; there was usually dark magic involved, a couple of human sacrifices here and there, and presto - In came Sirius and James, to put the walking dead down. James and he, held the department's record for putting down the maximum number of Inferi to date. Although James modestly credited the entire record to him.

Sirius and Regulus Black were the two sons of the only female Black matriarch in history - Walbruga Black. Walbruga had married a McNair, but had reverted to her maiden name on the boys father's untimely and very suspicious death. Sirius's and Narcissa's grandfather had given Grimmauld place to Walbruga to support her. That Walbruga had two sons , while her brother Orion had only three girls, was a source of great anguish to Orion. Not to mention Orion's wife Waiola, really despised her sister in law Walbruga, as it was one of Walbruga's boys - Sirius - that was going to be the future Lord Black after Orion. All in all, the Black's might be the most ancient, but they were not the happiest of all families. Good riddance thought Sirius! The day his crazy mother had blasted him off the family tapestry, he had literally felt the weight lift from his shoulders. Sirius was free at last to pursue his dream of becoming an auror - the antithesis of what his mother wanted him to become - a Death Eater!

Sirius, being a Black, had access to centuries of literature around dark magic. Having been forced by his mother to study dark magic from the age of five, he knew a lot about the kind of power dark magic could beget. This probably was the reason why he was the best Auror in the department for fieldwork. Sirius's brother, Regulus, on the other hand, Walbruga's so called the ideal son, loved reading up on the dark arts. Sirius asked his brother many a times what he found so interesting in that kind of literature, for his brother, despite his fascination with the dark arts, was a tenderhearted soul. Regulus had always claimed that what Sirius called the dark arts, was actually magic at it's pinnacle. A load of crap in Sirius's opinion. Sirius hated the fact that his brother always had his nose buried old books in the black library. He also hated the fact that Regulus' morbid fascination with the dark arts had led him to become a death eater! Catching death eaters and putting down Inferi that the self-proclaimed **_dark lord_** seemed to love creating, was not just a job for Sirius, as it was for the other aurors- it was personal- A vendetta against the people who had torn his brother from him.

"But that's Lucius's patronus!" Sirius was jolted to the present by Narcissa's vexed cry.

Sirius's brain immediately kicked into Auror mode. Anything that could get his cousin this worked up, was not good.

"Cissa - " began Sirius.

"Sirius listen to me. Lucius's mother and bother were killed at the Black manor today. We brought their bodies back to Malfoy Manor and placed them in the chapel to be cremated after the ceremony."

"Cremated ... " Sirius trailed off, his mind racing at the speed of light - Wizards were always buried. If a dead wizard's body was burnt, the soul of the wizard was unable to cross over, as his or her magic was unable to return to nature, and a ghost was created. Only when wizarding bodies were marked with dark magic, did they need to be burnt to free their souls. Being marked with dark magic usually meant that the dead body was reanimated by a dark wizard - an Inferius. It didn't take a genius to figure out which dark wizard had marked Azalea and Accrucius's bodies - ** _Voldemort_**.

Sirius's throat dried. If what Lucius's patronus was saying was correct, Frank was locked in the Malfoy chapel with not one but two inferi. Blood rushed to Sirius's many families was the nutter that called himself **_Voldemort_** going to tear apart?

Sirius and Narcissa began sprinting to the chapel.

-x-

The day had started off as being a pretty boring one. Frank had been helping his father prep the oysters and prawns, a mind-numbingly dumb task if you asked him. How had it gone from that brain cell murdering job to hiding from two Inferi was something Frank was unable to fathom.

He looked down, his leg was mauled very bad! And was dripping blood onto the carpet of the chapel. The carpet being blood red was not showing any signs of staining.

Alice must be rubbing off on him more than he realised thought Frank. Even in this dire situation, he was thinking of stains and cleanliness. Even if they couldn't see the stain, or hear the constant drip, Frank was sure the bloody inferi could still smell the blood.

Frank racked his brains to think of something - anything that would help him survive! For, he was in a very sticky situation indeed, and if he didn't come up with something soon, he was sure it wasn't going to end well. Considering the other four were linked to him, Frank would say he had managed to bring quite a situation on board!

He went over what had happened in his mind, trying to think of something he might have overlooked that could now be used to his advantage. As soon as Frank had opened the dratted book it became clear to Frank that there were protective spells inside the Chapel as well. Some magic was trying to shut the book, just as Frank wanted it open. It took Frank a couple of seconds to remember that he could also use a counter curse, instead of physically battling the magic. In those few moments in which Frank swished his wand, the book gave a giant heave and tried to shut itself for good, the brass corner caught Frank on the arm, Frank ignored the stinging, and muttered " ** _Finite Incantatum_** "

The book steadied, and Frank could barely read the words on the page ' ** _mala potentissimum_** '. Frank caught his breath, if he could remember any of the latin his mother had forced him to learn, the text on the page loosely translated to 'Evil most potent'. These three words sent alarm bells ringing in Frank's brain, he remembered reading the exact same text in his auror training. Frank's eyes scanned the book looking for something and desperately hoping that he was wrong. Frank scanned the ancient page, his eyes searching for some clue in the ancient Latin and runes. A very familiar symbol caught Frank's eye, and his heart sank. Familiar only because Sirius and James had often shown information of their cases to Frank, so Frank had seen this particular rune a thousand times before. There it was, drawn on the bottom of the page - the **_PrioriSurecit_** \- a circle made of bones - the symbol for an Inferius.

This was bad, he should have got either James or Sirius with him. Frank was more of a strategist and a detective. He literally hated field work. The only reason he was in Malfoy Manor was that Moody had been sure Azalea Malfoy would be too distracted to notice Auror's snooping undercover in her home today - none of them had anticipated any action. Still, the department's policy required two field Aurors to shadow Lily and frank - the department's best strategists.

Frank's eyes scanned the room, there stowed beneath the altar were two shrouded figures. Frank almost knew what he would find even before he raised his wand to divulge what was beneath them. Looked like Azalea Malfoy stored her victim's bodies in the chapel before disposing of their corpses. This was definite proof that Azalea Malfoy was into the dark arts. The presence of these two corpses ensured a one-way ticket to Azkaban, if Frank could somehow prove that these poor souls were indeed Azalea's victims. As the white cloth removed itself from the bodies, Frank's brain started going over the list of all missing people that was taped to the department walls, eliminating those quickly that didn't match what he could see of the corpses!

Despite being prepared to see mauled bodies underneath, Frank couldn't stop himself from gasping. Azalea and Accursius Malfoy were lying there, still in death, their lips blue and skin white - a white that only death could achieve. Frank stared nonplussed. Saying that they were the last two people he would have guessed to be under the sheet was an understatement. Today was turning into a very strange day. Frank, in his career as an Auror , had seen many bodies. It was an unfortunate part of doing what he did, however, this he had encountered the first time - engraved on the foreheads of both the bodies was the **_PrioriSurecit_**. Frank knew what this meant, from hearing many accounts of James and Sirius - these bodies were in transition.

That is they were just one step short of becoming an Inferi.

 ** _Shite_**! He should have bought Sirius and James with him!

Frank hadn't known the Malfoy's in life, however looking at them now, Frank felt a profound sense of loss. Here was another pureblood family, Voldemort had tricked into becoming Inferius's for him on the pretext of giving them immortality. Frank looked on at Azalea Malfoy sadly, magnificent even in death, she would now be subjected to the indignity of not even having a burial. Her headstone, even though she had spent her entire life working on uplifting the Malfoy name, would never be found in the Malfoy graveyard. It would be as if she never existed.

Frank stared off into space trying to recall everything moody had drilled into his mind about the inferi. He could almost picture moody pacing in their classroom. Moody's voice rang in Frank's head -

 ** _"Never bury bodies that are in transition, for their magic will never be able to return to the ground."_**

 ** _"Never expose bodies that are in transition to blood, for they will rise as Inferi."_**

Frank looked around the chapel, and suddenly his sleeve caught his eye, it seemed the book's corner was a little too sharp. His sleeve was soaked with blood. Frank immediately backed away, it would be just his luck if he woke up not one but two Inferi on his first encounter with them. In his haste, he knocked over the altar along with a chalice that was sitting over it, that he had unfortunately ignored before this. The chalice tumbled down, the loud clank of its falling reverberating in the chapel over the uproar of the chapel's crashing. Frank's eyes followed the growing puddle of water, slowly making its way to the bodies as Moody's last instruction echoed in his mind-

 ** _"And never for god's sake, try to drown a body in transition, the water expedites the transformation and enhances the thus created Inferius's capabilities. If any of you fools attempt this - Longbottom that's for you boy - I assure you it's the last thing you will ever do."_**

As soon as the trickle of water touched the bodies, the change happened. It started with a twitch of toes and fingers and then the arms set in motion. Soon after, Frank could see their heads moving. The Inferi stood up, unsteady at their feet at first, but moving all the same. The Inferi started to jerk, moving in a frenzy. Their limbs uncoordinated, bending at angles impossible for the living. Frank stared in morbid fascination, this was surely the last thing he would ever see. Suddenly Azalea Malfoy's corpse stopped moving and turned around. Frank felt the crab cakes he had eaten come back up the wrong way- Her corpse opened its sunken eyes, expressionless, with a veil of death over them, raised its arm and started walking towards him. Frank tried to walk backwards, in his haste he had forgotten his wand and it now lay that the inferius's feet. The Inferi stepped over his wand and advanced slowly.

And stopped.

Frank raised his confused eyes to the two tall figures that were standing as sentinels on either side of the fallen altar.

Understanding came to him with the speed of a thousand trampling trolls - Frank knew that the Inferi were guarding the infernal book. It seemed Voldemort needed the tome desperately.

That made the book darn near precious to Frank.

His wand was something he could leave behind if it meant saving his life. However, passing up the chance of mucking Voldemort's plans was something Frank was not about to do.

Frank, inspired by that rare Gryffindor courage that he had always suspected would be the death of him, sprinted towards the Inferi. Accursius Malfoy's inferius ran towards him, and at the last minute, Frank severed, dodged and grabbed the book, with his other wand he grabbed his wand and send a help signal to all of the other Auror's.

What he had not counted on was Azalea's Inferius being more intelligent than her mindless son even in death. Azalea gouged Frank's leg with her teeth and claws and was keeping him in enough pain and preventing him from doing any magic. Accursius Malfoy limped over to Frank and grabbed hold of his neck. Frank was slowly having the daylights choked out of him. As Frank lost consciousness, he could feel that his pocket watch was providing him with a paltry source of energy and was the only thing that connected him to the land of the living. Frank realised with dismay, he was slowly killing his friends along with him.

Suddenly, Frank felt within himself a flare of energy, a blinding light was coming out of his pocket watch that threw back both the Inferi. Frank fell to the floor gasping, heaving, taking giant gulps of air. He took out his watch and bathed the Inferi with light.

He heard the Moody in his head again-

 ** _"The Inferi, being creatures borne of dark magic, have a natural affinity to the Night, they shrink from light and fire"_**

If he survived this, Frank would never bad mouth the old codger again.

Seemed like Frank was finally doing something right. He sprinted to the door and tried to force it open. It stayed put, as Frank had known it would. Someone had taken precautions to prevent the Inferi from escaping, the downside was that Frank was now locked in too.

Frank levitated himself on the balcony overlooking the pews, the book tucked under his arm, his wand in one hand and the pocket watch in another, throwing light on the Inferi, thus desisting them from venturing too close to him. For some reason, and Frank had a nagging suspicion that he knew why, he was unable to summon any kind of flames to burn the Inferi down.

His only hope was that his friends would find him before the power of the watch ran out. Without fire at hand, Frank was a sitting duck.

-x-

"You WHATT?" Shouted James and Lily together.

Lucius winced at the shrill sound. Bloody hell! That muggle-born witch of Potter's really had a pair of lungs on herself. Lucius had just finished explaining the events of the morning to Lily and James Potter. He thought he saw understanding and pity in Lily Potter's eyes while he was telling the Potters that both Narcissa and he were trying to find a way to reverse the **_PrioriSurecit_** tattoo that had appeared on the bodies of his mother and brother. Pity - that had quickly changed to outrage when he told them that they had put an imperturbable charm on the door that was impossible to open from the inside. When he got to the part where Narcissa had disabled the use of fire inside the chapel, James Potter had to physically restrain his wife from attacking Lucius.

Sheesh. It wasn't his fault these pesky Aurors came snooping into his home.

Lucius and Narcissa were just trying to make sure Azalea Malfoy had a dignified burial. Of all the misfortunes the house of Malfoy had suffered today, none would be greater than the Malfoy matriarch not being buried in the Malfoy graveyard. Azalea Malfoy had always wanted to be put to rest at the place picked out - right beside her husband; In fact, her final resting place was one thing she always mentioned when she was trying to blackmail her sons into doing something that they didn't want to. Lucius was going to try his damnedest to ensure his mother's last rites were at-least proper.

Azalea Malfoy was many things but stupid was not one of them. Lucius Malfoy was certain that his mother and brother were tricked into turning into inferi after death. Cissa had just found a stack of letters that his mother had been exchanging with Voldemort. Apparently, Voldemort had persuaded his mother and Accursius to undergo a ritual, that would make them immortal. Lucius ground his teeth together, this was what the half blood scum that called himself the dark lord had sunk to. Ticking innocent- relatively innocent - (Lucius mentally amended) people into becoming his blind followers after death.

Lucius heard a platter of feet behind him and turned, there was his new bride running towards him. Narcissa ran to him and buried her face in his chest. Despite the circumstances, Lucius's heart soared. Cissa was his! He still couldn't believe his luck. Good things simply did not happen to Lucius. Narcissa looked up and Lucius captured her lips with his.

Several minutes passed, or rather a few glorious seasons. This was the real world, the feel of her lips against his and her soft gasping breaths -

" ** _OUI_** "

Lucius and Narcissa broke apart quickly; Embarrassed at having shown such emotions in public. Such displays of emotions were alien in pureblood families.

"That's the last thing I need to see after nearly dying - my baby sister being snogged! " - A distinctly uncomfortable Sirius shouted gnashing his teeth together - "I don't care if you are her husband - Just hold it in Romeo!"

Lucius raised his he could reply Lily Potter spoke up from behind him - "Oh grow up snuffles! What is this like the fifteenth century? Your behaviour would be out of place even then.."

"Gentlemen... Ladies... Let's concentrate on the task at hand... We have a situation here! "-James Potter began - "I am sure your bickering..." Potter glanced at his wife and lost his nerve. He seemed to realise he had gone too far.

"Did you just say I was bickering?" - snarled Lily - James Potter quailed under his wife's gaze.

Lucius rolled his eyes, he truly felt for poor henpecked Potter.

"Now can we stop this silliness for a moment and concentrate on the matter at hand?" Spoke Cissa in her most cultured voice. Oh dear! Thought Lucius with a smile- he knew that voice, these Aurors were in for it.

"However, if you would like to continue fighting amongst yourselves and let your fellow Auror face my inferi mother and brother in law by himself, then be my guests. Although I don't suppose he would last long!"

"The minister of magic though -who happens to be our guest this morning - would be very interested in knowing that the Auror department was snooping illegally in our home without a warrant."

James Potter spoke up - "I am sorry Lady Malfoy. Today has not been a good day for you. We are truly sorry for your loss, and regret the part we have played in worsening this day for you! We would leave this instant but one of our comrades is in there and we cannot abandon you please open the door to the chapel so that we may retrieve him. House Potter will accept any compensation demanded by House Malfoy"

And then pureblood etiquette demanded Lucius saying equally formally "I, Lucius Malfoy, accept your apology, Lord Potter. And forgo any demands for compensation this time. Trusting in your good word that such a thing will not happen again"

"On my honour, Lord Malfoy" Began James Potter in his most formal voice - only to be cut short by his wife.

"Oh for god's sake! Look Lucius and Narcissa we are sorry! We thought the Malfoys were hiding something. Whether they were or weren't, has died with Azalea and Accursius" Lily Potter spoke harshly ."What matters now is are you willing to burn the Inferi? Our comrade and friend is in there and we are not going to abandon him"

"Burn? Never!"- Spat Lucius - "I can still help them. I can still figure this out"

Lucius felt a hand on his shoulder. He looked around to see Sirius looking at him with pity. "Lucius, there is no spell that can reverse the creation of an Inferius"

"No!" breathed Lucius "I can't let go! I have to try!"

"I can't give up!" Shouted Lucius.

"The ritual that was performed on your mother, imprinted her soul with dark magic. In death, her soul has left her body but is not able to cross over. He body is filled with dark magic, and unless we burn it, she will never be able to find peace!"

"Peace? Don't talk to me as if you care about what happens to my mother's soul! What do you know about family? " -Lucius spat, he looked quite demented with ghosts of the day's events swimming in his eyes - he had lost too much too soon.

Sirius stepped back as if he was burned. Even though he knew Lucius was not in a sane state of mind right now, the family taunt still hurt.

He looked at his sister with haunted eyes.

Narcissa gave him a look that was both apologetic and sympathetic at the same time.

She turned to Lucius and said "Lucius" . ..

"It's time".

Lucius looked at his wife. There was a myriad of emotions reflected in her eyes. Pain, loss, understanding, pity. But above all love!

"It's time" Narcissa repeated - "You have to let go"

Lucius gave her a small nod and strode away! He didn't think he could bear to watch it.

Narcissa Malfoy opened the chapel's gate with a flick of her wand and muttered some strange spell, and a strange gust of wind blew from inside of the chapel.

Lily Potter was watching Narcissa Malfoy with fascination! Narcissa was using spells that Lily had never seen! Looked like Lily wasn't the only one who liked pushing magic forward. Narcissa felt Lily's gaze on her, and gave her a small smile!

Sirius strode into the chapel and a moment later emerged levitating a very pale and shivering Auror - Frank was in a bad way.

James Potter raised his wand, and before he could utter the burning spell, Lily Potter touched his arm and stopped him. Narcissa knew in that moment that Lily Potter realised how traumatic this was to the Malfoy's even though she herself was not a pureblood.

"Lucius ..." whispered Narcissa.

"Come..."

Lucius Malfoy returned to face the chapel.

He raised his wand, so did his wife.

Together they burned down the old and ushered in the new!


	9. Chapter 9 - Consequences

**_How was it possible that one vanished from the face of the earth?_**

Narcissa had searched the entire country for her absconding sister Andromeda. She had hired Aurors as well as muggle detectives,but no avail. Her new best friend Lily Potter had assured her that when you wanted to find a person - wizard or otherwise, these muggle mercenaries were the best. Though she had also warned Narcissa not to call them that to their face. Apparently, muggles had invented ingenious ways of covertly spying - which their government used, very effectively, to track all of its though Andy wasn't a muggle, every hideout in the muggle world was on the _grid_ \- and whatever that was - it sounded awfully efficient. It seemed to Narcissa like a gross intrusion of a person's privacy, however, if it found Andy, Cissa was Slytherin enough not to complain about it

Despite all of the Malfoy resources being employed to search for Andromeda, it seemed her sister had just disappeared, it was as if the oldest Black sister never existed. Narcissa and Bellatrix were beginning to worry. The last person to see her was a strange muggle who lived on the outskirts of Little Hangleton - after that, the trail ran cold.

The Muggle's name was Ted Tonks - he happened to be the only muggle Narcissa's father was rather fond of - mainly due to the fact that he provided a regular source of entertainment as he was never sober! Ted's antics were the talk of the village. The one that stuck to Narcissa Memories like a wart was one where Ted Tonks got really drunk and woke up married to a goat! That the goat was an equally drunk animagus wizard caused a great uproar in the wizarding world. The minister of magic was called to annul the marriage, and Vincent Crabbe (Sr.) -the goat in question - was the butt of all wizarding jokes for a fortnight.

Even the gloomy Black household was, for once, touched by laughter. For Orion Black, on hearing about the misfortune that had fallen his peer, was so consumed with mirth, that he fell off his horse, laughing hysterically. Andy, Bella and Cissa had all been startled to see the uncharacteristically human display by their father. The three girls had been spying on him, trying to gauge his mood, from behind the rose bushes, where they had been hiding from their mother. The sisters had been naughty that day, there were - very secretively - reading muggle fairy tales, and had just managed to accidentally free seven of the Black family's household elves while trying to dress them up as dwarves from the "Snow-White and the seven dwarves" muggle fairy tale. To say that they were in trouble was an understatement. Ted Tonks the crazy muggle's antics had just put their father in a great mood. He, having had his disposition considerably lightened before his daughters were brought before him, readily forgave them.

There were many memories of Ted Tonks antics, littered throughout their childhood. Ted Tonks was many things, a drunk, a lecher and all in all he was mainly responsible for colouring the three sister's views on muggles.

However the last couple of weeks had really been an eyeopener for Narcissa, and she had begun to see Ted Tonks in a rather different light.

-x-

 ** _Black Mansion: 2 Years back_**

Bellatrix Black had gone to check on all the animals as the night before had been rather chilly. She, having personally overseen all farrier work in the stables, had gone to collect eggs from the chicken coop. Andy was going to make delicious French biscuits called macaroons. Cooking, unlike playing childish muggle games, was a life skill their mother heavily , both Bella and Cissa had been given tasks - Bella's was to get fresh eggs and Cissa's was to get fresh roses from the garden.

To say that Bella was looking beautiful that day would be wrong, for Bella was looking as she always did - memorable and fiercely brunette. She had never been one to bother about her looks. Bella was one of those girls who was even more alluring because she didn't believe that she was comely. In looks, Bellatrix and Andromeda were absolutely alike, however, in nature, there could never have been two people more different. While Andromeda and Cissa preferred to stay indoors, Bella took out her horse - Thunder - and rode along the countryside. Bella and her horse were well known throughout the village, having trampled many an unsuspecting muggle unfortunate enough to cross Bella's trail. As long as Bella didn't actually kill one of the muggles from the village, the ministry would look the other way - such was the power behind the Malfoy galleons that Andy was bringing in. Even before, Bella was never in anybody's opinion -docile - however, the incident with the room with the elf heads early on in her childhood had affected her more deeply than any of them had imagined at that time. Bella was fierce, for the lack of a better word, in both her love and hate. And Bella hated muggles, with centuries of the Black family propaganda buried firmly in her core.

And fate often did funny things.

Sad things.

Unfortunate, unnecessary and ruinous things.

For it was fate that had placed a drunken muggle lecher and a fiercely beautiful muggle hating witch in a chicken coop together that locked from outside. That the witch in question had forgotten her wand, and the lecher was in a rarely sober disposition was something that added to the novelty of the situation. For in that moment that Bella first laid her eyes on the muggle named Ted Tonks, her heart gave a great thud. It felt like meeting someone who was both familiar and stranger all at once. The emotions warring through Bella were melting the ice in her, one tiny shard at a time. She could feel her elven core yearning to kill him on the spot, but something stronger than her brain was holding her back - her heart!

For Ted, it was a bad start of the day, as he had run of cocaine last night, and that meant he was currently sober. The world was dismal, the colours muted and a general feeling of dread surrounded him. He thought he would eat before he went to search for some booze, and hopped into the crazy Lord Black's madhouse of an estate for a quick breakfast. He entered the coop and was about to push aside a hen to retrieve some eggs when he heard the click. He turned around half expecting the crazy Lord Black to come and pester him again about the goat incident. Ted didn't even think it was that funny. So he slept with a goat one night - who didn't? Well, no one he knew did - amended Ted mentally - but the point was that it wasn't something you bothered a bloke about umpteen times.

But today it was the Lord's crazy, horse riding, youngest of a daughter who always wore black or green. They wore a lot of those colours at this house. Apparently, the girls attended some outlandish school called **_hogwash_** and they were all in a house called **slithering.** And green was the colour of their house - so it was every-bloody-where.

The chit was looking at him funny, and it made **Ted** uncomfortable - and that was saying something - considering he was the village lecher and all! That gaze bought back memories he kept buried with booze. He scanned her from top to bottom - She had on a velvety hat - the kind Ted's grandmother wore in her portrait. Only Bella's - if he remembered her name correctly - had a lot more flowers and pearls in it. She was wearing a pale green dress that was almost white in the sunlight - her hands were gloved, her boots were laced and the dress fitted her shape in an impossible hourglass fashion -Ted could bet his next stash of weed that all the women of the crazy black household wore corsets. It seemed the house lived in a bygone era. There was no electricity in the house - Ted knew because he had originally planned on stealing some of it. There was no wifi for Ted to hack into. There even was no refrigerator, everything was very quaint and strange here.

Strangest being the emotions he thought he saw were reflected in the youngest Black's eyes. It looked alternatively like hate and something really familiar that Ted chose to ignore. Ted's gaze travelled back up she leather clad boots to her face. Oh, bugger! She was looking at him with fire in her eyes. Ted took one step towards her, and he was not entirely sure that she wouldn't run away. She stared at him transfixed, he closed the distance between them and being the Casanova he was, he put a finger under her chin, tilted her face and looked deeper into her eyes.

Ted felt the earth shift, the stars explode and he felt thousands of unbreakable chains chaining his floundering ship to her. In the ever uncertain world, Ted Tonks finally found his anchor.

He brought his lips down to hers.

Fireworks exploded.

Lines blurred. Boundaries were crossed.

Reality and fiction.

Rich and poor.

Witch and muggle came together.

-x-

 ** _Malfoy Manor: Present Day_**

Narcissa remembered how secretive Bella was in the weeks that followed. Always sneaking around, and what was commendable - thought Narcissa scowling - was that Bella was _so_ good at obscuring her tracks, that neither of her sisters ever caught on; until a week before Andy's wedding that is. Exactly seven days back, Bella had come to Narcissa in tears and told her everything that had been happening. To say that Narcissa was shocked to learn that her sister had been fooling around with a muggle was an understatement. Bella was the most intolerant of the black brood- that she had done something like this was incomprehensible. Narcissa would have suspected foul play on Ted's part if he were a wizard - but as such he was not. A muggle he was - weak and incapable of fooling a witch. That the witch in question was pregnant just added to Narcissa's worries.

Narcissa rubbed her temples - and asked Grogg to fetch her a cup of tea. The facade of the elegant lady she had been brought up to maintain was slowly slipping. One of her sisters was missing and the other one was carrying a muggle's illegitimate child. Although she relished the idea of her being an aunt, Narcissa didn't think her father would appreciate the fact that his youngest daughter was procreating without his permission.

She gazed out across the Malfoy grounds.

A very irate Lord Orion Black was striding across the Malfoy grounds, with a noticeably subdued Bellatrix Black in tow. Narcissa inwardly gulped, this was not going to be good.

Narcissa rang the bell and Grogg appeared 'Go fetch Lord Malfoy' she snapped at the elf.

Grogg bowed to her and disappeared with a crack. A second later Lucius was at her side.

Narcissa nodded towards the front gardens where her father was arriving. Lucius spotted his enraged father in law striding across his lawns, his heart going out to Bellatrix and the way she was cradling her stomach. Both lord and lady Malfoy looked on, a slight tension in the lord's jaw being the only betraying sign of what was to befall them.


	10. Chapter 10 - Bloodlines

_**Orion Black was fuming internally**_.

It was nine months since the day he had unceremoniously dumped Bellatrix on Narcissa's doorstep. Nine agonizing months, which Bella and the infernal muggle (Orion couldn't believe he had ever found him funny) had spent at the Malfoy Manor, and Orion had spent stewing at the Black mansion. The 'bastard business', as Orion called it, had been naturally kept under the wraps. Orion didn't want any of his daughter's frivolities besmirching the pristine reputation he had spent the last couple of decades creating. The family name could not suffer on his watch. Orion knew his father was probably turning in his grave, what with one of his granddaughters missing, one fornicating with muggles, and one grandson even going as far as becoming an _Auror._ Orion shuddered internally, only his nephew - Regulus Black was a Black with proper pureblood pride, for he had joined the noble cause of the death eaters. What was rather strange, mused Orion, that five children with exactly the same upbringing had chosen such different paths in life.

Orion had spent the day riding aimlessly around his estate, punishing elves helter-skelter to vent his frustration out on the world. Circumstances, destiny or fate as some would call it had turned the most joyous occasion of becoming a grandfather into something shameful. His son in law Lucius had just visited the Mansion to inform them that Bellatrix had gone into labour. About time thought Orion, his wife had been fretting from the last month, as Bellatrix's due date had come and went. Orion released a sigh of relief, at least he would not have to endure his wife's many speculations on what all could have gone wrong with their daughter. For allowing a healer to see Bellatrix was out of the question. He was happy the half blood spawn was out of his daughter's body. All Orion had to concentrate on now was on the execution of the plan he had carefully crafted all these months.

Orion galloped over to the mansion and as soon as he reached the porch, he dismounted. The groom came hurrying forward to get the reigns from his master - lest another round of crucio made its way. Orion strode over to the parlour and rang for his afternoon tea. He saw his wife descending elegantly from the grand staircase to join him in the sitting room. As Vaiola approached him Orion faked a look of concern and spoke to his wife "Vaiola dear, you should go over at Narcissa's, and be with our daughters! After all, we don't want Narcissa to tire herself out! ".

Orion saw Viola looking at him with mounting surprise, and felt a trickle of anxiety - if there was anyone who could unravel his plan it was _her_ \- for Vaiola could read him like a book. Orion knew he had slipped up and thought he could literally see the wheels turning in Vaiola's head. Orion had never shown direct concern for their daughters, always trusting Vaiola to take care of them. Orion cursed mentally, desperately hoping that Bellatrix going into labour and Narcissa being in her first trimester, made the situation urgent enough to book no argument from his wife. Orion breathed out a sigh of relief when he saw Vaiola's tiny nod of agreement. He quickly pulled a chain and an Elf appeared bowing.

"Prepare the carriage and mount the trestles, mistress will be leaving for the Malfoy Manor in 5 minutes." Ordered Orion in his most regal voice. It would never do for a lowly servant to see the inner turmoil he was going through.

"Yes, master" Bowed the elf and disappeared with a crack. Orion looked at his wife pointedly, and Vaiola got up, her mind was whirring, most probably to decide what she was going to wear thought Orion condescendingly. They had spent thirty years together, Orion could anticipate every action of hers and vice versa. That is why he had been extra careful with his wife and had let only a little of his inner agitation to seep through as a total lack of it would have made Viola suspicious. So every night at dinner Orion sulked and made snarky comments about the situation his daughters had put the family in, just so his wife thought that was all he was going to do. It would not do for Vaiola to discover his plans for Bellatrix, despite her pureblood pedigree, she was a mother thus would never agree, and Orion couldn't afford for his plan to go awry. Orion waited for his wife to make up her mind, and after a couple of minutes, Vaiola too disappeared to her chamber to pretty up.

A few minutes later Vaiola returned from her room wearing a pretty gown and looking the picture of elegance. Why couldn't his daughters be more like their mother, wondered Orion? Vaiola was the epitome of what a well brought up pureblood wife should be. She was pretty, she didn't ask impertinent questions, and did as she was told. In fact, she was as easy to manage as the livestock on the Black farms. All Orion needed to ensure was that the lady had an endless supply of pretty dresses and baubles; and spare some petty cash for all her indulgent social parties - that incidentally also did his business good by introducing him to many a business associate. Win-Win for both of them in Orion's opinion.

Orion walked to the bar and poured himself a glass from the decanter. He could feel Vaiola's disapproving sniff from behind him. In the early days of their marriage, he and Vaiola had been very much in love, and he, having had delusions of being lucky enough to marry his 'soulmate' had promised _**Vi**_ \- as he called her then - that he would never drink in the afternoon. Well, that one was bound to fail, and when it did the rest of their so-called love went with it. Orion sometimes missed the closeness that once was in their relationship, but then after thirty years of maintaining distance, he could hardly set things right. The men of the Black household were never lucky in the matters of love; for Orion remembered his father's words 'Mistresses for love, wives for heirs' - apparently that motto was going to serve many a Lord Black to find peace.

Orion and Vaiola had gone through a lot. Sometimes when Orion was in a reflective mood, he thought about all the miscarriages, the stillborn sons and finally three daughters, he and Vaiola had. Orion had made peace with the fact that he didn't have any sons of his own - he had grand plans for his daughters. They would be the saving grace of House Black - along with his nephew Regulus of course.

And then as fate would have it, just as he had secured the Malfoy inheritance, Andromeda absconded and Bellatrix declared she was with child. Orion hastily gulped down the firewhiskey. The alcohol travelled down his food pipe burning as it went. He could not allow Bellatrix to unravel everything that he had worked tirelessly to orchestrate. That half crazy daughter of his was supposed to bring in the Nott inheritance. The Notts had a strapping boy that he had chosen as her husband, Bellatrix would be well cared for, also Orion would get enough galleons for his slave trading business in the middle east.

Chucking the entire contents of his glass in one gulp in a very ungentlemanly fashion, Orion bid farewell to his wife and proceeded to apparate to the very edge of the Black grounds. He needed to cross the grounds before he could activate the portkey. Emergency or not - it was never prudent to setup portkey's from your mansion, it weakened security considerably. Orion quickened his pace and crossed over the forest of willow, and disappeared along with the trail.

-x-

Regulus Black stood overlooking the cliff at the edge of Eccup lake. It was years since he had come here but till date, the natural phenomenon of having a lake exist side by side a cliff amazed him. The scholar in him took in the serrated rock formation all over the land, well beyond the cliff, indicating that there was some kind of huge water body here long before the lake came into being. Maybe the lake was the remnant of the water body - mused Regulus. A loud churning noise suddenly distracted regulus from his thoughts. Most wizards were not able to hear the sound of portkeys. Portkeying, unlike disapparation, was quite silent, the latter being characterized by a loud pop. But what most people didn't know was portkeying caused rippling effects in the magical field before materializing in any place.

Regulus sighed, and waited for this uncle to intellectual mind focusing on the matters mundane daily life. Being the younger of the two Black brothers, he had lived in his brother's shadow all throughout his childhood, just the kind of life he had always wanted, he could stay in the shadows undisturbed and continue his quest for knowledge. But since he had joined the death eater ranks it seemed his life had come to be lived on a centre stage. Regulus couldn't honestly say that it was a change for the better. The Dark Lord - Voldemort - he corrected himself mentally - had recognized his razor-sharp intellectual mind and given him a place in his research department.

Regulus still remembered the day he had got marked. It had been the night he had graduated from Hogwarts and his mother fearing that he would follow in his brother's footsteps had bartered his future with Voldemort. She was there to pick him up from Hogwarts along with his uncle Orion - In hindsight, Regulus thought that probably should have been his first clue. They both took him and apparated in front of a manor house that had a strange crest on the gate, which he later discovered was the crest of a new house called Lestrange Manor. Named after two crafty brothers Rodolphous and Rabastan Lestrange, who, if rumours were to be believed, were smugglers. Although it told a lot about the kind of business Uncle Orion had, they were also close associates of Uncle Orion's. It was clear that the mansion was very new and in his mother and aunt's terms - gaudy. There were peacocks strolling about and a whiter than white building made of pure marble towered over then. His uncle held out his wand and suddenly a wizard appeared. Regulus took a step back, he was so not prepared to meet a death eater in full garb. Dressed from head to toe in black, the man was wearing a mask made of some silvery substance, most likely mithril. Regulus sucked in his breath, Mithril was something no wizard had seen for the last millennium. Any wizard had managed to mine and work it, he was a someone who had his respect.

The death eater ran his wand over the three of them and disappeared with a pop. The giant doors of the mansion opened and the gaudiest hall Regulus had ever seen materialized. For a moment Regulus was thrown off by the Gryffindor colours decorating the room. But then he realised that while the room was predominantly made of marble, it was coated with a fair amount of gold sheets, inlaid with emeralds and rubies. It fit, since the brothers were rumoured to be smugglers of rubies. And there at the head of the table, he sat - _**Voldemort**_. Even his mother was thrown off for once - the guy had eyes like a snake a hairless head and skin that was as white as an albino. Voldemort turned his head towards Regulus and he could feel pressure against his mental shields. Regulus just let the bare minimum amount of servility trickle through his shield so that it was not apparent that he was an occulumens. As soon as he started plying Voldemort with the kind of horseshit propaganda Uncle Orion usually parroted, he felt the mental pressure disappear and Voldemort turn to other death eaters. Regulus, Orion and Walburga stood slightly off the table for a while while the death eaters went by their day to day jobs. Within fifteen minutes the death eaters had crucioed two people, brought in and slaughtered a manticore, discussed how to trade off the parts and finalized how to divide the revenues.

Suddenly Voldemort made a motion with his left hand and Orion and Walburga presented the son of the Black Family to Voldemort. Voldemort raised his wand and brought down his wand in a series of black saw the sparks suspended in the air, they formed a grotesque skull and came down on his arm. Orion could feel through this shield the pressure exerted by the mark on his arm. Fascinating, it was a form of compulsion, and Regulus realised that it was compelling him to feel pain. Regulus immediately schooled his expression to match exactly the one his new brothers were expecting to see and Voldemort let out a satisfied sigh.

The last two years, that Regulus had spent in the Lestrange mansion, researching portions, spells and dark magic in general for Voldemort, had given Regulus quite an insight into the Dark Lord's operations. Regulus had been shielding his thoughts from the dark mark tattooed on his arm and reading surface thoughts of all the death eaters. Having learnt many titbits of information, for example, Regulus knew that the Lestrange brothers were having trouble finding wives of noble blood, unsurprising thought Regulus - he couldn't see anyone marrying their daughters to the depraved brothers. The brothers had a gruesome reputation even in the shady streets of Madame Sinistra, were banned from all the pleasure houses and gambling mansions of London.

The Zabinis were struggling to have a child, and that's why they had joined the death eater army, in exchange for a potion the dark lord brewed. The Notts were in to fight a rare disease called leukaemia that affected every male member of their family, always making them die young just in time to produce an heir. Crabbe's and Goyle's we just in for the money. The Lestrange brothers were trying to get the Parkinsons to join from about a year.

The Longbottoms', Potters', Bones', Weasleys' had all ostracised the death eater society and had the families had declared for the side of the _light_ , with Albus Dumbledore heading it.

Occasionally Regulus would even skim the Dark Lord's mind, the filth and darkness he saw there was enough to really bumm Regulus out. The tosser was actually half-blood, and he didn't give two hoots about blood purity thought Regulus in outrage. It was in one of these mind skimming instances that Regulus had found out about Voldemort's secret, purely by chance.

Regulus caught himself in time, and concentrated in the present, it would not do to carelessly think about such dangerous matters. He quickly closed his eyes and stuffed the last couple of thoughts behind his mental shields.

Orion Black materialized holding a piece of willow wood that was emblazoned covertly with the black family crest. Regulus stared at his uncle with pity. It was a shame really that the father of brilliant minds like Andromeda and Narcissa was such a fool. Orion Black had just made a deal with Voldemort. And Regulus was left to escort his uncle to the Dark Lord.

 _Hmmpf_ he couldn't say Andy would be pleased to hear what her dad was about to do.

Orion walked over to Regulus and clapped him on the back.

'Nephew! Good to see you my boy!' said Orion boisterously. No one could say he was going to meet the Dark Lord thought Regulus disparagingly, Uncle Orion's manner was all too cheerful. He probably thought he was going to get his misplaced sense of family honour satisfied at last. He had literally made a deal with the knew from reading minds of every death eater trapped by Voldemort that everything that the Dark Lord did had a price. Regulus hadn't been able to find out what deal his uncle had made with Voldemort, but he knew in his bones that the price of anything that Orion was asking would be steep.

'Uncle!' murmured Regulus uncomfortably. 'We better be off! The master doesn't like to be kept waiting!'

Regulus held out his arm and Orion put on his hand. Regulus turned on the spot and there was a loud crack - the two wizards were gone.

-x-

Rodolphus Lestrange was many things - shrewd and cunning - he had a reputation in business circles for being absolutely lethal. Originally from England, he was born to a bar dancer in Wiltshire, but because he had travelled the world, his accent made it hard to discern where he was from; thus providing him with an air of mystery that quite cloaked his quite unprivileged origins. Although it was a little-known fact, he had no patience for stuffy purebloods who hadn't done a day of honest work in their life. Rudolphus and Rabastan were most likely mud-bloods, they thought they might even be half-bloods - for they didn't know who their father was. But judging by their mother's lifestyle in their early childhood, their absentee father was probably very wealthy. Rudolphus's mother - _**Star**_ \- for that was her stage name had been, had squandered all the wealth supposedly given her to raise her boys before her sons had turned five and then dumped them in an orphanage.

From then on, both the boys had to fend for themselves, and the streets had toughened them up. Rudolphus, although being younger of the two had learnt very early on that the world was a twisted place, and to survive, one had to do unspeakable things. The brothers had taken the last name of Lestrange, after the owner of the bar their mother used to dance in, for he had always been kind to them.

Rudolphus strode across the pomegranate orchard Rabastan had insisted they have in their mansion. For all his outer bravado, his elder brother was a dreamer at heart, thought Rudolphus fondly. The fact of the matter was, if it were up to Rudolphus, he would have never built such a mansion in the first place, land was a dying investment with very low returns if any. Rudolphus could think of at least ten alternate investment options that would be a better utilization of their hard earned (albeit illegal) fortune. But the day he had seen the wistful look that Rabastan had sported when they visited the Parkinson mansion, he had vowed to get his brother one of their own. And so Rudolphus and Rabastan got themselves a pretty house, they got their acerage, thoroughbred horses, their carriages, their own elves. Everything in short, except pureblood wifes, of course, to be considered respectable gentlemen.

That's where the brothers hit a blank, thought Rudolphus ruefully, lengthening his strides in impatience. He had tried to arrange matches for his elder brother and himself. Both the brothers had laboriously attended many a season, made small talk, tried to court just about any lady, even the most unbecoming hence insecure ones, just to pick up brides - but no avail. Rudolphus **_hurmphed_** remembering the first season they had visited. By the wide berth the pureblood wenches were giving them, they quickly realised they would have to polish their mannerisms before they could hope to land a wife. So after a year of rigorous training on wizarding etiquettes that Quincy their butler had painstakingly drilled into them, the brothers returned to the next year's season. Only to be rejected again by the wizarding ton. Rudolphus then hired a secretary that he internally called his PR advisor - and still no avail. Although their advisor did manage to find out the real reason for their continuous rejection. Apparently, pureblood families were very particular about their **_bloodlines_**. The house of Lestrange was relatively new for any older wizarding families to even consider lending their daughters as brood mares to them.

The Lestranges had tried to compensate for their lack of pureblood genes by offering grand sums of money, the likes that could bail out old families in sticky situations like the Blacks many times over. However, they were always refused for polite and very believable reasons every time. Quincy found out through his sources, that Lord Black hadn't deemed the Lestranges worthy enough to taint his families bloodlines with, and rest of the ton had followed. It was small consolation, that even the Malfoys had just barely qualified.

Rudolphus gritted his teeth in frustration, in the grand scheme of things, it would be bloody unfortunate if, after all, they had gone through to get here, they got outwitted by something as mundane as blood. Rudolphus had reached the end of his patience and finally approached the Dark Lord with the matter. It was amazing that the Dark Lord didn't laugh at the brothers and their inability to secure wives for themselves, like a couple of unfortunate and very much deceased wizards had done at _**Madame Sinistra's**_. Their master, rewarding their long and faithful service to them, had promised him a pureblood wife from the best bloodlines before the year was up.

The Lord had just sent an owl to him, his wife was to be none other than Bellatrix Black and Andromeda Black was selected for Rabastan. Andromeda Black was still absconding, but Bellatrix Black was in a sticky mess that would get resolved today. She would stay at the Lestrange mansion from tonight and would marry him tomorrow.

Cryptic as the sticky mess business sounded, Rabastan knew indeed that this was nothing short of a miracle if the two brothers landed the two Black girls.

Rudolphus reached the mansion and Quincy arrived with his afternoon scotch.

"Master .. If I might be bold enough to inquire, who is the witch in the portrait?"

"Portrait?" Rudolphus looked around confused. As far as he knew his brother hated wizarding portraits. Too noisy he thought them to be.

"The Dark Lord sent this with a house-elf by the name of Kreacher. The lady is utterly beguiling if I may be so bold."

Rudolphus Lestrange almost licked his lips in anticipation seeing the portrait of the young Bellatrix Black in from of him.


	11. Chapter 11 - Fruit of the poisoned tree

_Vaiola Black was hyperventilating._

Her daughter was in mortal peril. Not only was Bella screaming the place down, and thus was in unspeakable agony; Grungy, the Malfoy healer-elf had just told her that judging by the alarming amount of blood that her daughter was losing, it was unlikely that she would last very long.

It was an impossible delivery - Bella was oozing blood like a leaking cauldron.

Vaiola knew that the worst had happened, for there was a history of thin blood on Bella's father's (that is the Black side) of the family. In fact, Bella's aunt Walburga was one of the afflicted ones. Even though Vaiola was always jealous of her two boys, she knew for a fact that Walburga fought with death both the times she went to St. Mungos maternity ward. Walburga didn't have any more children as the healer told her that one more delivery would finish her off. Though this information was not something she shared easily, as it conveyed a lacking in the Black family, today the circumstances were dire enough for her to spill the beans to Cissa, that too in front of her gauche friend Lily Potter.

The look on Lily and Cissa's faces after they heard about the thin blood gene confirmed to the older woman all that she had surmised regarding the current predicament was true.

Through the sachets of conversation Vaiola caught from the labour room she learnt that Narcissa and her muggle-born friend Lily had brewed seven vats of blood replenishing potion in the weeks before Bellatrix's delivery. Bella had gone through six of them already and the baby was barely crowning. If the current rate of blood loss kept up, Vaiola didn't need to use any arithmancy to figure out how this day would end.

The situation was as bad as it could get.

Vaiola got up fanning herself, the parlour of the violet room - the one in which Bella was giving birth - felt too hot to her suddenly. She walked across and threw open one of the mock vintage windows that Malfoy Manor had so many of. A blast of cold air hit her, and her eyes immediately started watering. She blinked her eyes many times and hugged herself to shield from the cold.

Malfoy Manor, even though it wasn't as old as the Black mansion, it was beautiful in its own way. The expansive lawns, the gorgeous fountains, and the spectacular greenhouse made it look every bit as stately of a home as the one in which she lived in. Her eyes skimmed the grounds to land on the forest in the distance. Unlike her grounds, a forest of oak lay at the outskirts of the Malfoy estate. The treetops of the Malfoy woods were visible in the setting sun. The last rays of the day were lending a reddish tinge to everything they touched. Vaiola averted her eyes, it reminded her too much of the bloody scene she had witnesses indoors. Not wanting to think about whether or not she would still be a mother of three daughters at the end of the day, Vaiola willed herself to visualize a happy and very much alive Bella, even though such a possibility was fading fast by every passing second. She, Vaiola Black nee Bulmer, the head lady of the Blacks would not allow herself to disintegrate into a blubbering mess.

Vaiola closed the window with a snap and walked across the room into the grand entryway, thinking a walk in the Malfoy greenhouses would clear her mind. As she crossed the entryway, she couldn't but help notice how different the Malfoy Manor decor was now, it looked like her Cissa had been redecorating and with excellent taste. Vaiola caught herself midthought, slightly disgusted that she could even think about superficial things like decor when one of her daughters was dying. Vaiola lengthened her strides as much as she could gracefully do, the rhythmic clunking sound her heels made on the mirror polished inlaid marble floor, grating slightly on her senses.

Vaiola reached the entryway and stopped. Before the footman could open the door for her some small trickle of magic, that she always called intuition, bade her stop. She didn't know what made her do so, but she paused for a moment and looked around. There was no one to be seen anywhere near the grand landing if one discounted the footman standing discretely at the door that is.

Suddenly , Vaiola heard arguing voices from her left. Not wanting to pry into her son in law's official affairs, for she realised a little later that the voices were coming from Lucius's office, she started turning away, when she heard something that halted her in mid-turn. She looked around and listened intently.

"That fool Orion Black ... " Vaiola Black listened, instantly recognising that the voice belonged to Lord James Potter. Indignant at the thought that James Potter was addressing her husband, the head of Black in such derogatory terms, Vaiola thought it was prudent to hear a little more before she took offence at his tone. God knew Orion had many shortcomings and but she loved that foolish man nevertheless.

"James, whats done is done. How do we handle the situation is the main question here" Lucius's quickly cut in placatingly. So it seemed Lucius knew what all this was about mused Vaiola.

"First things first - Bella needs to see a healer" - came another masculine voice which Vaiola quickly identified to be belonging to Sirius Black. Vaiola felt a rush of affection for her estranged nephew.  
"Regardless of whether my fool of an uncle is done being a stuck up bigot or not, we are not going to let Bella suffer." And just like that, he was back again in Vaiola's bad books. Well, what else could she expect from Sirius? That kid had never mastered the concept of family loyalty. Vaiola took a deep breath and readied herself to barge in, but then, the next words Sirius spoke stopped her in her tracks

"I have sent for a healer - don't worry, she will be discreet - and she should be arriving -" Sirius checked his watch and muttered sheepishly "about now." Vaiola sucked in a breath. She didn't know what she was feeling in this instant, glad that her daughter was going to see a healer at last and apprehensive of the damage that the story of her daughter's shame could do to both her daughter's life and the Black name. Either way, it wasn't Sirius's decision to make. That impulsive nephew of hers, he would be the death of the Black family name. Even though Vaiola knew in her veins that Sirius didn't have a mean bone in his body, at least not the kind of mean that the Blacks usually did, she couldn't but help feel irritated with him for his careless actions.

Something in James's and Lucius's expression must have caught his eye for he hurriedly added " is Frank's wife, Alice - remember Lucius you went to their wedding" Lucius must have nodded, for Sirius continued swiftly " And regarding Orion's stupid scheme - " A loud rumbling sound cut off Sirius from saying anything else and Vaiola could hear the sound of the floo network being activated.

Vaiola hurridly peeped through the crack of the door, expecting to see a smart no-nonsense healer wearing the St Mungo's official robes. Instead, she saw a petite woman in a long garment, that clung to every curve. Muggle dressing thought Vaiola alarmed, so this healer was muggle-born!

If the healer had been presented to Vaiola a day earlier, she would have absolutely refused to allow her daughter to be treated by someone she considered practically a muggle. However, observing Lily Potter and her devotion to Narcissa and Bellatrix, Vaiola was forced to question some of her very deeply rooted beliefs. Also since she was the only healer her daughter was gonna be able to see, Vaiola was Slytherin enough to keep her mouth shut about it even if it meant going against everything that her family stood for.

So lost Vaiola was while ruminating on Sirius's actions, that she totally forgot that she was eavesdropping. So when the door opened with a snap, Vaiola was, unfortunately, discovered listening at the door.

Lucius and James were the first to compose themselves when they found Vaiola with her ear where the door was just moments before Alice Longbottom had snatched it open. But before Lucius could say a word that would have probably diffused the awkwardness, Sirius burst into fits of laughter

"Oh Aunt Vaiola!" Gushed Sirius "There was no need to go about _snooping_ at the door, you could know you can always ask Lucius or me whatever you want. Isn't that right Lucius?"

And if that wasn't enough humiliation the brat had the cheek to _wink_ at her.

Lucius kept a straight face, Vaiola, gathering what was left of her dignity said in her most regal voice "I was just about to enter, nephew, when the sound of raised voices and my husband's name taken in vain stopped me" She looked pointedly at James Potter. James had the decency to look a little ashamed at having been caught being rude about the Black patriarch.

"However, coming to the matter at hand, if Lucius _you_ feel this healer is discreet enough to be allowed to witness our family's most shameful yet tragic secret, I will not stand in your way! We know you have done enough for the Black family and I will not dishonour you now by questioning your decisions" Vaiola Black said with her head held high.

Lucius inclined his head to his mother-in-law and she continued.

"I don't pretend to be thrilled with my daughter's choices, but God knows Bella and her Muggle husband have suffered enough. It would break many hearts today if Bella doesn't make it. " Vaiola turned to Alice. No one could blame Alice for subconsciously stepping behind Frank for protection - Vaiola Black could be an intimidating figure when she wanted to be.

"Madame I entrust my daughter's life in your hands" Said Vaiola, in a cultured monotone, as if she were discussing the weather, solidly ignoring the undignified way in which Sirius's jaw fell open. Looking at her calm exterior, no one but Sirius - who had known her his entire life - could read her inner turmoil.

"Do tell me if I can be of any assistance". Vaiola gathered up her skirts and turned.

Suddenly a pair of strong arms gripped her. It took a second for her to grasp that her nephew was actually hugging her

"Ohh Aunt Vi!" Vaiola sighed internally, resigned to the fact that her nephew would probably never get the hang of pureblood etiquette - for, judging by the sudden dampness on her shoulder he was shedding a tear to two. "I always knew you cared!"

Before her iron reserve broke, Vaiola disengaged herself gently from her nephew.

"There, there, Sirus... No Hugs" chided Vaiola assuming her most serious expression "I am pureblood - and we show affection to only dogs and horses!"

Alice Longbottom raised her brows at the very muggle thing that Vaiola Black had just uttered.

"Now scoot over and let the healer pass through"

-X-

"Don't push! You'll tear yourself!" Alice Longbottom was shouting herself hoarse.

It had been two hours since Bella had been in labour.

Alice had just figured out the problem. Bella's baby had not turned.

The stress that she had undoubtedly been subjected to had brought on her labour before time. Her child, it seemed, had wanted to stay with its mother even longer. As a healer researching magical potential, Alice knew that the longer a wizarding baby remained in its mother's womb the greater magical potential he or she had as an adult. Judging by how overdue Bella was in the first place, Alice reckoned this baby of Bella's was going to be an exceptionally powerful witch or wizard.

However, considering how much pain Bella was in and that Alice and others had major doubts on whether the mother and child would survive this ordeal, Alice thought it prudent to keep the information to herself. She didn't want to add in more heartbreak than that was strictly necessary should worst come to pass.

It was common knowledge that wizarding babies were born breech. It was just one of those genetic quirks unique to wizards. Contrary to muggle births, a breech wizarding birth was considerably easier than when the baby was upright as a wizarding infant's magic started interfering with the birth as soon as it's head emerged. A very small percentage of wizarding babies, and that too only muggle-borns or half-blood ones were born upright. And it almost never ended well.

But today as fate would have it, Bella had a healer present with just the knowledge to help her through. Alice had trained as a nurse in a muggle hospital over the summer. Her healer thesis was on muggle birthing methods. To say that it was an unexpected stroke of luck in this situation was an understatement because most muggle babies were born upright and thus the muggles had invented very innovative assisted birthing techniques.

Alice had just finished setting up the vacuum suction pump and had instructed Lily on how to operate it. This pump when fixed over the baby's head literally sucked the baby out of the mother. Alice could feel the dubious stare the Blacks were giving her however there wasn't enough time to waste in reassuring them. Alice stationed Narcissa and Bella's husband Ted on Bella's head, each holding one of Bellas legs, folded knee to the chin. Alice had in her hands a pair of forceps and could feel Vaiola eyeing it with great trepidation. After confirming everything was set according to her specifications, Alice took a deep breath and was ready to get the baby out once and for all.

"On the count of three then" Said Alice loudly.

"One"

"Two" Out of the corner of her eye she saw Ted kissing Bella and whispering something nodded and a look of intense determination came over her.

"Three"

Many things happened in tandem, just as alice had envisioned.

Vaiola Black twitched her wand and cast the contraction charm, and Bella gave a great push, screaming as if she was charging forward to a battle. Simultaneously, Lily applied suction pressure, the baby's head was almost out, one quick manoeuvre with her forceps and the baby slipped out. Bella immediately started heaving, considering she wasn't screaming the place down anymore, Alice took it as a sign of improvement.

Lily took the baby quickly and held it upside down, gave a quick slap to her bum, and the room was filled with the cries of the youngest daughter of the Black household.

"Tie the chord Lily and clamp it down with the clip. Ted do you want to cut the chord?" Barked Alice.

"Yes.." croaked Tonks, his voice hoarse.

He came staggering up to Alice white-faced and weak. The last couple of hours had been hell on him - Alice could see that he hated to see Bella in so much pain. Alice handed the pair of shears to him and he took them. With trembling hands, he cut the chord.

Lily quickly cleaned up the baby and brought the baby to her parents. The look of wonder that passed over the parents and everyone else related to the baby by blood was unmistakable. To be fair, the little girl was indeed the prettiest baby Alice had ever seen.

She had inherited her mother's curly hair, but where her mother was a brunette, the baby's hair colour was a rich brown after her father, sticking up adorably all over the place. Her eyes were huge and a soft brown. The tiny rosebud mouth was opened in a tiny _o_ , as the little munchkin fell asleep after drinking her fill of milk.

The little angel slept in her mother's arms without a care in the world. Without knowing that her life was to change completely.

"So what do we call her?" Ted asked looking into his wife's eyes.

Bella kissed her daughter's abundant mop of curly hair and whispered " _Hermione_ "


	12. Chapter 12 - Sins of the son

Albus Macnair was being crucioed to insanity in the Lestrange Manor.

It had been two months since the Dark Lord had promised Bellatrix Black's hand to Rudolphus. Since then, Bellatrix had given birth to a baby and was married to a muggle. Orion Black in his immense stupidity had dumped the chit at the Malfoy Manor, which later proved to live up to its reputation of being an unbreachable fortress. As a result, Lord Voldemort had been unable to get to her. The Lestranges were still without a bride thus considerably reducing leverage Voldemort had over them.

Voldemort didn't like failure. Incompetence was not tolerated in his ranks.

Macnair had been given the task of retrieving the younger Black girl. He had not only been a colossal failure at it but had also boggled a kidnapping attempt on the muggle that Bellatrix was consorting with.

Voldemort narrowed his eyes, he could see the crumpled face of Macnair over the crucio being spewed from his wand. How Macnair managed to get outwitted by a muggle was beyond him! Still, Macnair was one of his loyal followers, and Voldemort's ranks were not yet large enough for him to afford to lose the handful of followers he currently had. Soon, thought Voldemort, soon he would have enough followers to be able to dispose of incompetent blubbering messes like the one in front of him.

Voldemort lowered his wand and the deadly flames of crucio stopped spraying towards his victim. Macnair lay sprawled on the white marble floor of the Lestrange mansion, twitching erratically. It would probably take some time for Macnair's body to realise that the crucio was lifted. At least Voldemort hoped it would. It would be so inconvenient to lose one of his followers to insanity, right after he had decided to pardon him.

Voldemort turned on his heel and proceed to sit at the head of the table. The problem was graver than a mere failure to procure brides for incompetent half-blood filth like Lestranges.

Malfoy Manor with its unimpeachable defences posed a grave threat to Voldemort's plans of world domination. It was essential that there was no place he or his followers couldn't get into. Voldemort had temporarily accepted that Hogwarts was impenetrable while Albus Dumbledore still lived but he didn't like the idea of adding another to the list.

Voldemort put the spidery fingers of his hands together and contemplated how to breach the Malfoy Manor once and for all.

-X-

Regulus Black had just been summoned in the middle of the night by the Dark Lord.

Despite being the only wizard who had deceived the Dark Lord for this long, these nighttime summonses really jarred him to the bones. Regulus knew the hoax that called itself "the Dark Lord" was merely an empty shell, a pitiful excuse for a human being - that is if he had enough human left in him. Personally, Regulus thought not. What with his self-inflicted soul mutilation spree - Regulus stopped himself right there. It was a bad idea to go to meet with the Dark lord thinking about his illicit secret the knowledge of which one wished to keep secret from him.

Regulus quickly put on his Death Eater paraphilia. His cloak, mask and the heavy-duty black dragon hide boots and gloves Voldemort insisted they all wore. Despite his aversion to the snake man and everything he stood for, Regulus always thought that the death eater garb really became him. Because every time Regulus had put it on, Andy hadn't been able to resist him, thought Regulus with a smirk.

Looking at his reflection in the mirror, the skull tattoo on his arm caught his eye.

Reality jolted him out of his reverie and pierced his heart like a banshee's shill cry.

He was in love with his cousin Andromeda and they were in an illicit on and off relationship that they had been hiding from the rest of the world since the last couple of years. He was also hiding the said cousin in his trunk back at the Grimmauld place. The very cousin was the only person he had shared the Dark Lord's secret with. He was also a death eater by occupation and thus ran a high risk that the Dark Lord might read this information from his mind, leading to the instant decimation of all Blacks.

All in all, it was a dire situation to be in.

Regulus took a deep breath and calmed himself. Reason returned to him trickle by trickle. He could not fail at hiding his thoughts - there was simply too much at stake. He emptied the canvas of his mind, put in an invisible shield.

And just like that, the greatest occulumens was ready to walk into the lair of the greatest legilimens.

-X-

As Regulus walked into the Lestrange mansion he grimaced at the portrait of Bellatrix Black he saw hung at the entrance. It was very obvious that Rudolphus wanted to keep the portrait as a visual reminder to the Dark Lord. That was one more reason Regulus never got on with the Lestrange brothers, they treated Bellatrix and Andromeda as pieces of meat to be bartered with the dark lord. Although the same could be said for his uncle Orion Black thought Regulus snidely.

The doors opened and a death eater stood at the entrance of the hall. By the signet ring he wore on this right hand, Regulus identified him as Yaxley.

Of all the death eaters to join the dark lord's cause -Yaxley's story was the strangest.

Yaxley had been in love with a witch named Arabella Figg, from his school days. They had been one of Hogwarts poster lovey-dovey couples. Even the reclusive Regulus Black knew that Alfred Yaxely and Arabella Figg were inseparable.

Regulus didn't know about the details, but what we understood from skimming Yaxley's thoughts - which were surprisingly well guarded - was that Arabella had ditched him at the altar. Despite all facts pointing at the obvious, Yaxley was convinced that there was some foul play involved. After having tried and failed to persuade the ministry to look for Arabella, Yaxley had finally turned to Voldemort after three years of her mysterious departure from his life. Regulus could tell without having to snoop around in Yaxley's brain that he detested some of the more inhumane tasks that Voldemort set him to do, but it was a matter of looking for his lady love, and the foolish Gryffindor was determined to pay the highest price.

Yaxley was doing the duty of the front guard these days. He ran his wand all over Regulus and muttered a couple of the standard hidden artefact revealing spells. Quickly finishing the search drill he gave a covert nod to his strangely compassionate death eater in arms, and Regulus was ushered in.

"Ahh, there you are - Young Regulus Black!" hissed Voldemort.

Regulus bowed before the snake man and faced the usual mind search stoically.

"I have a little task for you"

"All resources of the house of back are at your disposal, my lord!" replied Regulus promptly. Simultaneously feeding Voldemort a dollop servility from his thoughts.

"Regulus Black, I think you should go visit your cousin Narcissa Malfoy and stay with her a couple of days. Your uncle tells me how much you yearn to visit your cousin. And should you get bored babysitting the new addition to your family, use those days to study the defence of her home, test all strengths and weaknesses of the Manor. You have been a good potioneer to me and Voldemort always rewards his followers."

Regulus showed just the appropriate amount of joy on his face, that became a young pureblood heir, and answered stoically "Very well my lord, I shall ask my elf to pack my trunk."

Voldemort nodded at Regulus and that was his cue to leave. Bowing once more, he exited the dark lord's lair, with hope in his heart for the first time in the last couple of months.

-X-

"Where did you say you were sending me?" squealed Andromeda Black in delight.

"Shhhh...! " whispered the death eater in front of her "Control your emotions woman! Where is your pureblood upbringing when I need it?"

Andromeda Black pouted and raised her lips as if inviting the death eater to kiss her when suddenly a knocking from the other side of the door resulted in her getting unceremoniously shoved back in Regulus's trunk.

"Come on in, Kreacher!"

"Master Regulus, Kreacher has brought you and miss she-who-must-not-be-named some tea along with all the sandwiches Miss favours."

Regulus sighed and pointed his wand at his trunk and the lock opened. A very irate Andromeda climbed out of it. Regulus gulped nervously. Locking Andy in his trunk was the safest option to keep her safe. Andromeda, on the other hand, hated it. An angry Andromeda was a very interesting witch. He watched her narrow her eyes at him, but she got distracted when Kreacher entered the room. The poor elf was groaning under the weight of the heavy silver platter he was carrying. Andy's eyes softened looking at the obvious display of Kreacher's affection and he could visibly feel her relaxing, Regulus knew Andy despite her rigid pureblood upbringing she was a softy at heart. To be fair Kreacher was madly devoted to his little miss Andy.

"Aww thank you Kreacher, you do spoil me rotten!" cooed Andy at Kreacher. Kreacher blinked a couple of times very quickly. Clearly, andromeda's charms extended to poor susceptible servita elves as well.

"Mistress, Hokey has put on the kettle and made some of the smoked salmon sandwiches that you - " Andy's elf emerged from the trunk and stopped in her tracks on seeing the crowd that was gathered there. She took in the plate of sandwiches brought by Kreacher and glared at them as if they had personally offended her. There was pin-drop silence in the room. the wizard and the witch in the room knew how possessive servitas were about their owner.

"AAH Hokey! There you are" boomed Regulus "I have been waiting to have those sandwiches of yours since yesterday afternoon" trying to diffuse the tension. The last thing he needed was having to referee an elf fight.

"Yes, master "croaked Hokey, relaxing visibly. Hokey bowed lowly, her nose almost touching the ground.

Kreacher and hokey laid out the afternoon tea service and then disappeared discreetly.

"So, are you saying that I will be meeting my sisters and niece after all ?" gushed Andy as soon as the door was shut to his room.

"And to think the dark lord himself has ordered you to go to Malfoy Manor. Reg, we will be untouchable once we get into Cissa's fortress of a home."

Regulus nodded and allowed a rare smile to escape cracking the pureblood facade momentarily.

"Yes dear.."

"So what are we waiting for?" asked Andromeda a trifle impatiently.

"I have just contacted James. He will make all the arrangements. Just waiting for his Patronus to -" Regulus was cut short by a silvery stag that spoke in James Potter's voice.

"Ensure you are alone, the floo network from your room will open at 11:00 am sharp for 2 seconds"

Regulus quickly looked at his pocket watch and spluttered, it was already 10:58. So much for forewarning thought Regulus wryly. He raised his wand and flicked it. All his worldly belongings got into the trunk. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Kreacher and Hokey zooming in as well. He did not have the courage to turn around, as could feel Andromeda's glare burning holes in the back of his head as she was sent tumbling into his trunk again.

It was 10:59 and Regulus was ready.

The clock struck 11:00, a fireplace materialised in his room, its flames glowed green momentarily and Regulus stepped in.

Much before the clock struck 11:01, it was as if no one ever lived in this room.

-x-

"So let me get this straight, Regulus Black is actually a defected Death Eater - the punishment for which, the last time I checked, was death. Andromeda Black and Regulus Black although brother and sister are - .. are .. doing unspeakable things together. Sirius is on the tails of Voldemort's potioneer that JUST happened to be Regulus - which Sirius doesn't know about. And you just invited Regulus and Andromeda over to Malfoy Manor because you want to keep them out of Voldemort's reach?" yelled Lily Potter at her husband who stood covering before her.

"Jamer Potter and the worst part is you really think this is a good idea. Do you even realise the emotional trauma Sirius would go through if he had to bring his brother in? I swear James sometimes I feel you have the emotional range of a teaspoon."

James Potter assumed his most apologetic expression and quickly took little Hermione out of Lily's arms. The little munchkin was beginning to fidget. His wife tended to get loud when she was angry. Since they had discovered they were in the family way, they finally had an explanation for why her temper had a very short fuse these days. James was trying to do his absolute best to keep Lily from spontaneously combusting, her fiery temperament was making it difficult. However, looking at her right now he thought to himself he was fighting a losing battle.

Lily Potter was working herself up into a huge shouting match the likes of which could not be good for the little munchkin gurgling in his arms. Looking down at little Hermione, James could swear little mione was actually listening to the conversation. James prayed she didn't pick up any phrases from Lily. The emotional range of a teaspoon indeed. Hermione's gaze was more focused than any newborn's ever was. In fact, sometimes he thought she was already learning from them, strange as it may sound. Alice Longbottom had shared her thoughts on Hermione's magical potential right after the birth. At that time everyone had taken it to be a rhetoric statement. Looking back James wondered if that was indeed true. He wouldn't be surprised if it were true though.

James sighed, that Regulus was a defected death eater was bound to cause a lot of rippling effects. He could feel it in his bones that getting Regulus over to the light side was the best decision he could have made. However, whether Sirius would like discovering that the potioneer who had caused tons of damage to countless innocents, was none other than little brother dearest. Not that Regulus had any choice in the matter. It was always 'serve or die' once you joined the death eaters. Anyways, Dumbledore seemed to think that Regulus and his brilliance was a virtual goldmine to have fallen into the orders hands. So that was that, end of story. Regulus was a member of the Order of the Phoenix whether Lily or Sirius liked it or not.

"Prongs... Lily... Lucius.. Where are all of you?" Shouted Sirius from downstairs.

Since Bellatrix had given birth to little Hermione, all of them were hiding in the Malfoy Manor. The Longbottoms, the Potters, Sirius and Vaiola Black were all cooped in the manor along with the Malfoy's. James knew through Regulus that Orion Black had made a deal with Voldemort. The fool got tricked, Voldemort was trying to retrieve Bellatrix to marry her off to his loyal followers the Lestranges. Orion it seemed was regretting his hasty decision of asking for help from Voldemort, as he lost the loyalty of his wife in the process. Whom, as it turned out he really cared about deep down despite the callous treatment he had meted out all these years. Still, there was nothing he could do now. He had made his bed and now must lie in it.

"Prongs!"

James quickly gave a cooing Hermione to her nanny elf - Crookshanks, and hurried downstairs. Sirius would probably scream the place down and James knew how much Mrs Black hated raised voices.

Lucius and Sirius were already deep in conversation. They looked up when he entered. The way Lucius was looking at him made him stop dead in his tracks.

"Who is it?"

Sirius and Lucius were definitely not looking at him.

"Sirius ... Tell is it?"

The clock suddenly struck eleven, the fireplace in the drawing room glowed green and Regulus Black stepped out of it. Some part of James's brain registered that Sirius was meeting his brother after a year - for it was Regulus who had answered his question.

"Gideon and Fabian Prewett.."

James's legs gave out from under him.

"But... How?" he stammered.

"They were outnumbered. Five death-eaters got in." Regulus took a deep breath and recited - " Antonin Dolohov, Thorfinn Rowle, Rudolphus Lestrange, Rabastan Lestrange and -" Rabastan looked at Sirius and Lucius and finished with a dreaded name "Fenrir Greyback".

A great cry broke out from the door. Lily Potter had just heard everything -

Gideon and Fabian Prewett were the two order members guarding the Senior Potters. They had just been brutally murdered along with their elderly charges.


	13. 13 - The forgotten and the foretold

Lucius Malfoy was standing right behind James and Lily Potter as the twin caskets were being lowered into the earth.

It had been three days before the order could procure enough manpower to retrieve the bodies of the elder Potters and Prewett brothers from the clutches of the werewolf Fenrir Greyback. The news was splattered all over the prophet and was being touted as the biggest blow to the nation's morale. For, despite Potter mansion's having innumerable protections and the Prewett brothers being one of the best Aurors, the death eaters had broken through and massacred the lot. If ancient manor's the likes of which the Potter's had owned were not impervious to Voldemort's attacks, then no one was safe. The resulting panic was beginning to break down the structure of society, it looked like the world that they had built till now would indeed crumble. The war that had been brewing between the light side and the dark had finally arrived and the wizarding Britain was feeling the brunt of it.

Lucius Malfoy let out a tired sigh, the bone-deep exhaustion he was carrying around was beginning to creep out of the tough facade he had been taught to maintain in public -for he barely closed his eyes these days; it had been a week since he had last slept. The horrors of the last three days were beginning to take a toll on his sanity: the gruesome scene of the devastation at the Potters swam before his eyes whenever he laid down to rest.

After battling with the death eaters for days, the order finally had the upper hand on the third day. The order had been eager to gain entry into the Manor. Being one of the first to enter as soon as the death eater defenses had broken, Lucius had heard before he saw his adversary as soon as he had stepped into the entryway of the mansion. The licking sounds Greyback was making as he lapped at the dowager's decaying neck would be imprinted on his mind forever. Fenrir Greyback had always been a cruel man, but after he turned into a werewolf he had become reprehensible. Lucius shuddered internally - the Potters were having a closed casket ceremony because there wasn't much left of their bodies - the parts that were left being ones Greyback did not like to eat. Potter Manor had turned into a slaughterhouse, even the elves had not been spared. The brutality of the mass murders, the violation of the dowagers both living and dead body, the remains of the elves arranged by none other than Greyback himself as some sort of sick art had almost made Lucius's knees give out. At the end of the struggle, Greyback, having superhuman strength had easily escaped, taunting the order members by snacking one of the dowager's finger as he went. The death eaters had burnt down the place when they realized that they were being ousted from it. A small mercy - in Lucius's opinion- for that bit of earth would be forever tainted by the blood of the innocent.

Lucius was having bouts of nausea every time anything triggered his memory of the slaughter. It had been a day since, but every time Lucius saw a piece of meat his mind would inadvertently go to the horrors he had witnessed, he would recall the stench of decaying flesh, and the Dowager's decomposing face with unseeing eyes would swim in his mind and the contents of his stomach would be expelled.

Narcissa along with her new friends had been brewing huge vats of soups and dreamless sleep potions so that he, Lucius, didn't waste away. Lucius hated putting Narcissa through so much trouble. He, however, knew that Lily Potter and Alice Longbottom had also been working frantically making healing potions, invisibility potions, nourishing potions anything and everything that could help the general population stock up just in case they had to survive a death eater attack or were on the run from them. Malfoy Manor had turned into the headquarters of the order of the Phoenix and had thus far withstood Voldemort's ferocious attack. The six witches - Andromeda, Bellatrix, Narcissa, Vaiola, Lily and Alice were a force to be reckoned with. Lucius was quite happy to relinquish the reigns of the manor to Narcissa and the witches. They were frantically helping people withstand Voldemort's fury. They had it all under control but were hit with a major hiccup when just a day after attacking the Potter mansion, Voldemort had all crops burnt by fiendfyre - meaning nothing could grow there for at least a decade.

Outraged by this dastardly act the witches had the elves sowing crops like potatoes and corn in the expansive Malfoy lawns, they had their chef elves working overtime, they put on a quick growing charm on the fishes of the pond that shortened their life cycle to days. The last bit being Alice's idea, she was harvesting a thousand fish a day. The pumpkins in the greenhouse had been spelled to grow even larger, they were now the size of mammoths. Andromeda and Alice were specifically in charge of the massive operation in the kitchen. The witches prepared super for a thousand people daily- hundreds of pumpkin pastilles, flagons of pumpkin juice, roasted potatoes, charred fish, countless loaves of bread were sent out every day.  
When even more people were rendered homeless by the death eaters, Vaiola Black sent out impassioned letters beseeching all of the ton to help. Resources poured in the form of fruits, meat, grain and some houses like the Bones, Parkinsons, Zabinis ordered their elves to work along with Malfoy elves.

If the Dark Lord was dividing and sowing discord in Britain, the witches were uniting them. Their effort was like a small ray of hope among the blackest of clouds. And just this was enough to irk the dark lord to no end. The assault on the defenses of the Manor has been intensified. Regulus who had declared for the light side by failing to answer the dark lord's summons had a price on his head that could nearly rival his own inheritance. Regulus had studied the debris of the Potter mansion and figured out the weaknesses of the defenses that had allowed the death eaters to breach the walls of the mansion. Every pureblood home that had not declared for the dark side was now protected by the fidelus charm, with the head of the house as the secret keeper. To say that Regulus was perturbed was an understatement - not with the price on his head, as he was fairly confident that if push came to shove he would be able to successfully hide from the dark lord- but Regulus hated the fact that now he was looked upon as some kind of hero - savior even. Everyone around him was in awe of his legilimancy skills. Regulus liked the quiet and unassuming life he had before he was stupid enough to join the death eaters. That was his end goal now - getting his quiet life back, tucked away with Andromeda in a remote cottage somewhere.

Lucius, Sirius, Regulus, James, and Ted the muggle regularly spent their evenings in the billiards room. There were reports of disappearances all over the country. People were being murdered in daylight, _Muggle-borns_ were set aflame tied to stakes, families were being torn apart. A general sense of chaos was upon them. Albus Dumbledore was the champion of the light and he was successful in keeping the darkness at bay. A sense of impending doom followed Lucius these days. It was a bad time to bring in a child into the world. Between them, they had an infant baby girl and three more children on the way. There was a fair chance that they might not all make it, leaving some of the children parentless. Lucius shuddered internally thinking which presences would be lost at the year-end.

-X-

Albus Dumbledore was tired of the draggers his brother was shooting at him every time he turned his head to look at the door of the hogshead. So much so, that Aberforth had forgotten to cast a _scourgify_ on the washcloth he was scrubbing his counters and goblets with. Albus wrinkled his nose in distaste, Merlin help anyone who had ordered barf's signature drink "Goats breath" today. His brother was really miffed that Albus had requested private rooms today. Though Dumbledore knew that Aberforth was insanely loyal, he had always been a nosy git since they were children. Aberforth liked knowing everything there was about the people around him and was a hopeless gossip, and Albus preferred to have his hiring meetings someplace secluded. Granted interviewing some _Sybil Trelawney_ , who sounded like a hoax seer, for teaching divination at Hogwarts hardly warranted a private room, but still, Albus thought he should give her an unbiased chance, his personal misgiving regarding the subject aside.

Also, Albus liked to rile the death eater following him into action every now and then.

Severus Snape, one of his own students had become a death eater after nursing a broken heart and bruised ego for a decade. Severus had been an abused child when he came to Hogwarts, in his oversized well worn patched up clothes, he was bullied and belittled all his life. It was a mark of his immense courage that he never came to his teachers for help to stop the bullying. The trauma though was too much to bear at such a young age, and Severus always tethering over the brink of falling into darkness. His longtime friend, Lilly Evans was the one shining beacon that had kept him from going over. For a long time, the dark arts gave him solace, when so much of his life was a mess. Albus had come upon Severus and Lily brewing potions in moaning myrtle's bathroom many a time, and the sight had always warmed his heart. There was a childlike innocence in Severus that only Lilly Evans seemed to bring out. It was seeing them so engrossed, and Severus so contented, that Albus shirked his duty of being the Gryffindor head and never reigned in his cubs. At least that was the excuse Albus generally gave himself. The truth of the matter was, every time he saw Snape, it was looking at his own monumental failure as a teacher.

The recent nuptials of Lily and James Potter had finally tipped Severus over the edge and he had plummeted to the depths of despair, his downward spiral culminating in joining the ranks of Voldemort. Severus, having seen and participating in his share of brutalities, was now being regarded as a death eater through and through. Albus, however, held out hope that Severus was still reclaimable, could tell from the first time he had heard of his induction that Severus Snape was just trying to find a sense of acceptance, from anyone. After losing the love of his life to his childhood nemesis, Severus had very little sense of self-worth left. In Voldemort's ranks, he finally found his place. Even though the cause of eradicating muggle-borns did not appeal to him on a personal level, Severus Snape would continue doing his duties as a death eater diligently- for if not a death eater, he really did not have anything left to live for now that he thought Lily had no more use of him.

After a tough initiation, which involved a lot of bloodletting and torture on Severus's part, the poor lad's was given the one task most death eaters dreaded - that of following Albus Dumbledore. But since this once Dumbledore was averse to hexing this death eater, Severus's task was turning out to be a rather boring one. It didn't help matters that Dumbledore routinely tried to spice it up for Severus by turning sudden corners just for the sake of it and having secret meetings with bogus seers.

Sighing heavily Albus ordered his usual and waited for the candidate to arrive. For a seer, Sybil Trelawney was definitely late. Dumbledore sighed internally again, divination in all its forms was something he had always been skeptical of. He had studied enough on the subject to know that seers did in fact exist, but they were very very rare. He had safely concluded, after looking far and wide for one, that they were no seers Europe in the last three generations. The last known seer was Greta Trelawney, Sybil Trelawney's great-grandmother. The Trelawney family did produce witches every third generation but Sybil Trelawney had the misfortune of being fathered by a werewolf by the name of Greyback. Albus Dumbledore was curious to see what would be the results of mixing seer blood with werewolf blood. Though firmly against human experimentation of any kind, he would not let himself be divested of the chance to further his knowledge when the chance was presented to him.

Albus was distracted from his rumination when the clock struck six. He could practically hear the heavy breathing from the other room. Discerning from where the sound was coming from Albus could just picture Severus standing on the chest of drawers in the adjoining room with his ear pressed against the wall. Since there was nothing he could do, Albus decided to have some fun.

—-*—-

Severus was literally sick of his latest assignment. Tailing dumbledore was proving to be both futile and very emotionally charged for Severus. Seeing Hogwarts, which happened to be the site of the biggest heartbreak he had endured in life on a daily basis compounded his troubles. As if it weren't enough that he was a death eater now, and the love of his life was married to someone else, and worse an Auror: the dark lord had recently breached his occulumancy walls and seen his memories of Lily Evans. To say the hunt was on for the mudblood corrupting the death eater's resolve was an understatement. The dark lord had pronounced the worst sentence for Lily ever- she was to be hunted down by Dolohov.

Just thinking about the horrors that the vile Dolohov would inflict on his sweet Lily was enough to make Severus want to hurl. Dolohov liked women and he liked to hurt them. The recent mutilation of Hope Burbage was fresh on Severus's mind. The poor woman had been tortured, raped, and mutilated before she was allowed to die. Dolohov got off on her pain and that was the singularly most disgusting thing Severus had to witness. It was a small miracle that the witch's teenage daughter Charity had escaped before Dolohov could get her. Alfred Yaxley had been tasked with tying up the daughter while her mother was ravished, and the girl had somehow stunned Yaxley with his own wand and escaped with it.

Severus was sweating buckets thinking what would happen if Lily was caught. Severus could never allow that to happen. It would seem his life's mission was to orbit Lily. He had turned deatheater to escape her and now that he was one, he was existing just to keep her, or rather the thoughts of her were destined to torment him to death. Severus knew he was trapped. It felt she had spun a web around him, or maybe she was quicksand. The more he struggled, the faster he sank.

Inescapable.

Inevitable.

As a punishment for feelings for the mudblood, Severus was tasked with tailing Dumbledore, and as an added insult Wormtail the animagus rat was asked to covertly trail him. Severus snorted with derision, the bloody Gryffindork rat didn't have a covert bone in his body nor enough brain to even power even his animagus form. It took Severus all of two seconds to figure out he was being tailed. However, being monitored closely or not, Severus realized he was in deep trouble and what was worse he had dragged Lily into it along with him. If he didn't dig enough information to pass on to regarding the order his loyalties would be even in more doubt that they were right now.

Severus was jolted out of his daydreaming by the squeak of a mouse.

"Aah Ms. Trelawney" came the voice of Albus Dumbledore from the adjoining room. It appeared that the divinition applicant had finally turned up. Severus's lips curled up in distaste. It was commonly known that divinition was a subtle art that didn't manifest itself in everyone. There were only a few gifted seers through the centuries and their fame had spread far and wide before they turned five. A true seer would never have to look for a job in Hogwarts, the world would have showered riches on his or her doorstep and she would have wanted for nothing. This Ms. Trelawney was a hoax, and if Severus could see it, so could Dumbledore.

There was a creaking noise of a chair being pulled and Albus Dumbledore began his divinition interview. Severus had a tough time containing his laughter, not only was this woman a hoax, she tried prophesying hoax deaths for Dumbledore as soon as she came in. Six prophesies were down till now, all proclaiming horrible deaths for Dumbledore. One of them even predicting him to fall down from the Hogwarts astronomy tower.

Severus sighed heavily. Looking around he saw the tail of the mouse disappearing below the window sill. It seemed even Wormtail thought there was no salvaging the night now. If Wormtail had given up tailing Severus for the night, there wasn't much left to do here.

Not wanting to subject himself to another minute of this interview or end up going on Dumbledore's wild goose chases that the headmaster supposedly set to entertain his former student, Severus readied his wand and just as he turned for apparition, he heard a strange voice:

 ** _The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches..._**

Severus's breathing hitched, it seemed Sybil Trelawney had added a spooky voice element towards the end of her interview.

 ** _born to those who have thrice defied him..._**

This time the woman was not going for rhymes, noted Severus, she seemed to be relying on the spooky effect of her voice to convince Dumbledore.

 ** _Born as the seventh month dies..._** _  
_

Suddenly Severus felt himself getting ejected from the hogshead and landed with a thud. He felt a tremendous pressure on the inside of his skull and had his occulumency walls not been up, he was sure he would have lost memory of Sybil Trelawney's interview. Instinct made Severus turn on the spot, disapparating anywhere out of here, and as he twisted, he saw, from the corner of his eye, he saw Dumbledore casting an anti-apparition ward, that was just a split second too late to stop him from escaping.

Severus landed on the dilapidated outhouse on the outskirts of Little Hangleton that he often used as a safe house. There was no chance of anyone following him here. A quick glance on the cobbled street confirmed this, it seemed as deserted as is was the day he had broken into this building. As soon as he had ensured his personal safety, Severus began ruminating on what had just happened. It was incredible the kind of goldmine he had just struck. He was willing to bet his right hand that the prophecy had been genuine. Severus was initially inclined to dismiss the prophecy as a hoax, if not for Dumbledore's reaction, he would have ignored it as trivia. Dumbledore's trying to stop him from apparating and going as far as to erase his memories practically guaranteed the authenticity of this information.

A ghost of a smile flittered on Snape's lips, this was enough news to convince the dark lord of his loyalties and probably then he could ask for mercy for Lily. It didn't personally matter to him whether the prophesied vanquisher of the dark lord succeeded or not. Severus thought nothing of sacrificing the unknown witch's future who would defy the dark lord thrice and give birth during the end of the seventh month.

Severus knew that the knowledge of this prophecy would lead to the murdering of a baby, but he could damn himself to the depths of hell if it meant keeping Lily safe.


End file.
